Ninja
by Zeetrex22
Summary: Dive into a world divided in two through the eyes of Naruto Namikaze, witness a tale of deceit,espionage and betrayal, all set in the modern day universe{full summary inside}
1. Chapter 1

NINJA

Summary: Hello world! Its daveed ace with a new take on Naruto, this is set in a modern day universe where the phenomenon of chakra is very absurd: "My name is Naruto Namikaze and I can't run on walls, walk on water, summon mythical beasts or hold my own against tailed demons….at least not yet anyways"

A\N: Hello world! Like I stated in the summary this is pretty much my first try at publishing a story and as you can imagine they will be mistakes, typos and errors in general so please bear with me, the plot is still being worked on so umm please don't hate on the first chapter just gimme some feedback on how my writing can be better

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto, if I did they would actually do ninja stuff

\- CHAPTER1-

The city always had a surreal feel to it…. especially when it got dark, the city was wrapped in neon lights of different colors, the people went about their business like they never slept and the cars raced around in a never-ending game of tag. This was the city Naruto Namikaze had grown to know…There was nothing really special about it, sure they were a few street races here and a few robberies around but that was about it, no mystical, surreal, magicky – shit going on and he was happy.

It was about 9pm, a tanned orange Audi raced down the asphalt road, the roaring of the engines made any nearby pedestrian think twice about crossing, and if they looked close enough they could see blue flames bellowing out of the exhaust, a clear sign that the vehicle was running on more than your average gas. The driver was about 5'9( you can't really tell cus he's sitting ) he had golden blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, he had a piercing on his left ear, he wore a loose white button-up shirt and a black tie that hung loosely around his neck , he had black suit pants on and a black and orange sneaker on. The driver could be identified as Naruto Namikaze and he was pissed, he received a call earlier today that his father was finally in town, it had been about four years ago when his father just up and left, he would always ask his mom why and she would always say "daddy loves you very much, he'll soon be back"

He heard his mum say that so much at some point she was beginning to sound like a broken record. He always wondered why his dad left and why his mum was so cool with it, it didn't make sense! But he was going to get his answers tonight one way or the other.

It was almost midnight when he pulled into his family's estate, "good evening master Namikaze, how can I be of service?" his butler approached him as he stepped down from his car "is my father in?" he asked with as much neutrality as he could possibly muster "yes young master, but I'm afraid he may be prepping for another trip" the butler bowed as he spoke, now if Naruto was pissed before he was beyond outraged at the moment "that will be all iruka-san, you're dismissed for the night" with that said the butler gave a deep bow and left.

Naruto walked in through the front door as quiet as he possibly could, his mind was a mess trying to decipher the enigma that was his father, and his blood was stewing in rage. His internal turmoil aside he was oddly calm because he knew he'd be getting his answers tonight. He made his way through the stairs at a silent but rapid pace, he listened to the arguing voices of his parents as he made his way to their door "he won't understand, you have to talk to him, he's getting really curious these days" that obviously was the soothing voice of his mother; Namikaze Kushina "Naruto won't understand, he's already past the age, and he hasn't showed any sign of chakra, its obvious he would never become an effective shinobi" Minato finished with a sad sigh. Contrary to popular belief minato loved his family more than life itself, but he bore a responsibility so heavy that it became almost impossible to spend time with them. "Kushina, I love Naruto as much as any father could love his son, its why I believe he not becoming a shinobi is what's best for him, so he can succeed where I failed, so he can be there for his family like I can't be" minato finished with tears threating to fall from his eyes, Kushina on the other hand wasn't half as strong, tears flowed freely from her eyes as she gripped her husband like he would disappear any second (only if she knew ).

"so why exactly can't you stay your stupid bastard!" Naruto shouted as he barged into the room, he had heard it all even though he didn't quite understand most things like the chakra or the shinobi stuff he had heard quite enough "go on tell me what's so important that you had to leave your wife and your twelve-year old son for over four flipping years just to come back and leave again, tell me what's so important damnit!"

Naruto was face to face with minato now, he had waited for this opportunity for the last four years, and seeing his father before him prepping to leave again brought out some pent up emotions he didn't even know he had "do you know how long she waited for you? Or how many nights she stayed up crying because of you? Or when we didn't even know if you were alive or dead" Naruto shouted as he cried freely.

"I truly I'm sorry son I- "he never got to finish his statement because Naruto landed a hard left to his jaw "I asked you a straight question old man, I don't want to know how it breaks your frail old heart, just tell me the fuck why!" Naruto roared in anger.

"one shot…. you only get one free shot you're not a kid anymore" minato stared down his son with cold eyes that even slightly scared Naruto, but that wasn't enough to deter his anger "you wanna speak up a little louder old man? I couldn't hear you with my fist buried in your face and all" Naruto roared, as he lashed out to land the next blow…. Minato grabbed the offending arm and flipped him over his shoulder, smashing him into the center table of the bedroom, Naruto not wanting to accept defeat or be outdone rolled away from minato's line of sight and attempted a mule kick, minato blocked the incoming attack with his forearms, Naruto took the chance to flip back to his feet and it was then the skirmish took a turn for the worse(for Naruto of course )

Minato aimed a left hook too fast for Naruto to counter, it connected with his nose with a sickening crunch(one less organ to worry about ) then minato delivered rapid jabs to Naruto's torso, Naruto dropped down unceremoniously like a pile of bricks, he held his sides groaning in pain.

"sorry it had to come to this, I love you son but its time to grow up, I bear a responsibility too heavy for me to handle and its too dangerous to bring you and your mother into, if anything where to happen to you two I would never forgive myself, everything I do Is for you son…..don't ever doubt my love for you or your mother" and with that minato disappeared in a flash of yellow.

"what… the fuck…. was tha-" was all Naruto managed to groan out between labored breaths before he fell into the sweet-sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

Heavy blue eyes opened groggily as it tried to adjust to the sudden in-flow of light, to his left he could see a heart rate monitor connected to him and on his right his mother could be seen making a call on her cell-phone, despite the issues that stemmed in her family Namikaze Kushina was a very successful scientist and a highly intelligent woman with a near genius level intellect, she was what every young female aspired to be. At the age of twelve she had discovered an unrelenting love for science and pursued it till date, she was currently the C.E.O of Namikaze industries which she had founded with her husband over fifteen years ago, the company grew over the years and became one of the top five powers in the world, it was currently in a tied position for second place alongside "Hyuga Tech" who were being topped on the table by the "Uchiha Initiative". The only reason why the Uchiha held such an unwavering position on the global business scale was simply because their form of business was weaponizations and creation of para-military personnel.

All in all, Namikaze Kushina was a very busy person and Naruto was shocked to see her at his bed-side "Oi, don't you have some very important meeting to be at or something?" Naruto rasped out sarcastically.

Kushina seeing her son was now awake swiftly hung up the call and made her way to the bed he was currently occupying "you shouldn't speak so much Sochi(son), at least have a cup of water first" she chided as she handed him a glass of water.

"Thanks Kaa-san(mother\mum)" he whispered out before he took a long sip of the water.

"so I guess he's gone yeah?" Naruto asked as he put down the now empty glass of water.

Kushina stared longingly at her son's now healed nose as a wave of sadness washed over her usually calm features "don't hold it against him Naru-chan, just think of it as a bonding exercise or something of the sort okay?"

Naruto stared at her blankly for a full four seconds before bursting out into a sarcastic laugh "we bonded alright, his fist and my face had a very nice conversation going" he finished as he rubbed his slightly sore nose.

"do you hate him?" Kushina asked with sadness strung across her features, the thought of her son and her husband locked in an eternal state of feuding was just too much to bear.

Naruto seemed to stare into space like he was deliberating on an internal conflict "I…. I…. I don't think so" Kushina was very much surprised by this revelation even Naruto was finding it hard to come to terms with it. "I can't explain it, but when he was kicking the crap outta me it was as if I could understand him it was as if I felt what he was feeling at that point in time" Naruto looked down at his hands "it was as if for that short period of time I had all the answers"

Kushina looked down on her son with a foxy grin "are you sure you didn't just get hit on the head harder than you thought?" Kushina asked trying and failing hopelessly to stifle her laughter at the startled expression on her son's face.

"wh- arghhh dammit Kaa-san I'm trying to be deep and serious here" Naruto shouted in frustration at his mother's antics.

Beside his mother's business mode like he dubbed her attitude towards work, there was also a sarcastic prankster side to her that he seemed to inherit and love, that was one of the many reasons he believed his mother was so much better than his father.

Kushina's reply was interrupted when her phone began to ring much to the ire of the blonde "its business time isn't it?" Naruto asked with a downcast look on his face.

Kushina only gave a warm smile in reply as she walked out the door that led to her son's room.

Naruto could hear faint voices coming from the other end of the phone but he paid it no mind as he relaxed fully into the pillow that was provided for him "this isn't so bad…" he muttered quietly to himself "now I have the time to catch up on some things" with a labored effort he reached out to the bedside table next to him and picked up his phone. He was surprised by how much missed calls and texts he had waiting for him "whoa…eight missed calls from Ino-chan, eleven from Sakura, five from Kiba and finally two from Sasuke" he let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding "well I guess it's time to read me some texts"

Hot-blond15: Naruto-kun where are you!

Pink_empress: he's probably getting something extra special for you Ino

Kingbeast22: yo Naruto where the hell are you man? You're missing a rocking party woot!

Devil_Eyes: you better show up dobe, Ino is going to be pissed and you know it

Bunnylover232: I'm sure Naruto-kun is just caught in some last minute business and will be here shortly

Hot-blond15: Don't make up excuses for him Hinata

Devil_Eyes: don't go picking on Hinata…leave her alone Ino

Pink_empress: yeah leave her alone Ino!

Cloudwatch1: y'all are so noisy and troublesome…...has anyone seen Choji?

Hot-blond15: get the fuck away Shikamaru and go find your fat fucktard of a friend somewhere else

Kingbeast22: hey Ino that's taking it too far leave Choji and Shikamaru out of this it's not their fault you've got a lousy relationship

Pink_empress: KIBA!

Devil_Eyes: That's enough out of all of you! Let's just enjoy Ino's party and wait for Naruto to show up, Shikamaru I think I saw Choji by the barbecue stand

Cloudwatch1: thanks man

Naruto finished reading the texts with wide eyes "fuck!" he vaulted off the bed in one swift motion, the throbbing ache of his ribs where the least of his problems right now, he didn't know how long he was out for but judging by the texts he was in some pretty deep shit. Today was Ino's birthday and he had completely forgot, it wasn't his fault, he blamed his dad for knocking his lights out "ino-chan is going to fucking kill me!" he screamed aloud in his head, he moved over to his pile of clothes and threw them on in record time. Just as he was about heading for the door it swung open to reveal his trusty butler; Iruka "I've cleared the bills and signed your release papers master Naruto" he finished with a bow "we are free to return home sir"

"scratch that iruka, I need to get to Ino-chan's house ASAP! Today is her birthday and I fucking forgot" Naruto shouted as he sprinted out the room

Iruka gasped in shock because he knew what kind of person Ino was and he knew that their relationship was shaky at best "master Naruto head to the roof, your mother's helicopter is yet to leave…and if you can make it in time she could drop you off" Iruka stated matter of factly as he ran beside his young master

"Thanks Iruka you're the best!" Naruto exclaimed as he pushed past Iruka with a burst of speed.

Kushina had just rounded up her phone call as she settled into the backseat of her company helicopter, she had just given the pilot the ok' sign signaling that she was ready for take-off. The helicopter blades had just began rotating with a whirring sound when Naruto barged in through the door that led to the roof "KAA-SAN!'' Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs as he made his way towards the helicopter that was already hovering a few meters off the ground "stop the damned helicopter!" Naruto shouted in vain once again. Now the helicopter was already well on its way off the roof, and he knew the only way he was going to reach it was to make a jump for it. He's rational mind tried to reason with him about the negative outcome of the pre-meditated stunt he was about to pull, but one simple flash of Ino's smiling face was enough to deter rationality. With one final burst of speed Naruto ran as he had never run before, although his muscles and bones screamed in protest he carried on towards the helicopter, fueled by an unknown force he jumped off the ledge of the roof.

" _No chakra my ass"_ Iruka thought as he saw Naruto leap off the 12-story building.

Ino yamanaka was not in a good mood, today was her birthday and she finally turned sixteen, all her friends and family turned up for the event that was supposed to mark a milestone in her life, unfortunately the one person who meant a lot more than half of all this people combined was nowhere to be found. That said person was Naruto Namikaze who has been her boyfriend for the last two years, for a while now Ino felt that they didn't have what they used to because she started to see Naruto less and less of the time, her story with Naruto goes as far back as grade school when she was his first and only friend, through the years' friendship turned to admiration and admiration turned into a relationship, as much Ino would like to deny it the relationship had a major fracture and it was her paranoia. Over the years Ino seemed to enjoy the benefit and prestige of being Naruto's girlfriend more than she enjoyed being with him, she noticed she didn't see him the same way he saw her, and sometimes she went as far as having a fling or two behind his back and convinced herself it was the frustration that he not being around caused. Naruto on the other hand was completely head over heels for Ino Yamanaka, she was his first and only friend in grade school, and at the time didn't treat him differently from other people because his family was rich. Naruto over the started to see Ino as his one and only shot at normalcy and in due time feel in love with her. Naruto and Ino's relationship was perfect once upon a time, but it took a turn for the worse when Naruto started to make other friends. Naruto noticed Ino became paranoid and sometimes cold, she even became kind of shallow at some point but Naruto seemed to be oblivious to this because in his mind Ino was perfect and Ino was all he needed.

A lone female figure sat by the poolside at her family's backyard, her platinum blonde hair was in a ponytail that reached far down her waistline and touched her backside, she was clad in a purple form-fitting dress that accentuated her astonishing figure, Ino yamanaka was not what one would imagine a birthday girl to look like, her eyes where red and puffy and her makeup was runny, if one was to glance from afar they would believe the yamanaka clan heiress was sad that her boyfriend didn't make it to her birthday party, but if one where to take a closer look and listen to her deranged ramblings they would understand that it was a different matter altogether. "he's not here…. He didn't come…*sob*… he doesn't care about me anymore…. It must be that Hyuga bitch…. He left me for the Hyuga bitch…. *sob*…he…left…... me" she cried silently as she looked into the water to stare at her reflection "Get it together Ino, you're better than this" her reflection rebuked her sternly "we'll just have to show him what happens when he cheats on us…. Heheheh …he and that damned Hyuga will pay for their betrayal….no one gets one over Ino yamanaka…...no one!" she got up swiftly, she dusted off her purple dress and went inside to fix her makeup. If she had waited a tad bit longer she would have heard the tell-tale signs of one Namikaze helicopter.

Naruto's group of friends sat down in a circle at Ino's dining area, they were mostly worried about their two blonde friends and how they were going to get through the night with their relationship intact. "Naruto messed up big time huh?" Kiba asked as he guzzled down his third glass of vodka, "shut it Kiba" Sasuke reprimanded with a bit of steel in his voice. Naruto was his best friend and he wasn't going to let a tipsy Kiba get one over him in his absence. Kiba ran a hand through his brown hair "All I'm saying is I don't know what she sees in him" Kiba let a cocky grin play on his features "not when they are real men like me around" he said as he finished his fourth glass of vodka. Ino suddenly stumbled into the dining area where her friends where at with a full bottle of alcohol in tow "who's ready to get the real party started!" she proclaimed with a bit of slur in her voice.

"umm i- I don't think you should drink so much Ino-san it's not healthy" Hinata stated shyly.

"I will drink as much as I want Hyuga, I don't need your self-righteous preaching" Ino bit back with a glare aimed at the shy Hyuga heiress.

"Cut it out Ino, I can smell the alcohol rolling off of you from a mile away" sasuke said, coming to Hinata's defense, Ino could be bitchy at best while sober and sasuke wasn't willing to find out how bitchy an alcohol induced Ino could be.

"let's all calm down" sakura started, "if Ino wants to drink I say we let her…. it's not every day you turn sixteen you know?" she took the bottle of champagne and poured a bit into everyone's glass "a toast to Ino"

"To Ino" the group chorused, some more cheerily than the others.

Just as they were about to take a drink from their glasses, shouts and cheers were heard coming from the backyard and they all rose to see what was happening.

Meanwhile at the backyard, the guests watched in awe as a lone figure their age jumped of a helicopter and was making his way down with a parachute.

"Omg is that Naruto?" a random guest asked as she brought out her mobile phone and started recording.

"yeaah it does look a lot like him" another person answered.

By the time Ino and her friends made it to the pool area he was already half way down, and the crowd of people were cheering wildly.

"Fuck yeaah!" Kiba hollered wildly as Naruto made a touch down at the edge of the pool.

"INO!...has anyone seen ino-chan" Naruto shouted as he tried making his way through the star struck mob of people at Ino's backyard.

As soon as he landed his friends tried making their way over to him, with great difficulty of course…...the wild crowd wasn't letting up. "Oi Naruto, over here" sasuke hollered as he waved frantically in the air to get the blonde's attention.

After about 40 seconds of maneuvering the group finally made it to the blonde "that was some entrance man! I take back everything I said about you tonight!" Kiba all but roared as he finally got to Naruto.

"ehh?" was the blondes unintelligent reply.

"I believe what he's trying to say is what were you thinking doing something so careless? What if you had gotten hurt?" the pink haired sakura bellowed as she shoved Kiba and got in the blonde's face. "why did you have to go and do something so troublesome? You could have just taken the bus" Shikamaru drawled out with a long yawn. "N-Naruto-kun are you alright? Did you hurt yourself landing" Hinata shyly stuttered out.

"guys, guys! I'm fine, imp okay really, I had to take the helicopter cus I was just cleared at the hospital and it was the fastest route here" Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, "and besides I had a parachute" he pointed his thumb over his back to the pool were his used parachute floated.

Sasuke was about to retort when he was violently shoved aside courtesy of a very pissed off Ino yamanaka, "where the hell have you been Naruto? I've been trying to reach you since last night, and you didn't pick up or return any of my calls"

"umm Ino-san, Naruto didn't pick up any of our calls either I think he must ha-" anything else the Hyuga heiress was going to say was cut short as Ino rounded her glare fully on her "STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR HIM HYUGA!" Ino roared as she made to lounge at Hinata, luckily Naruto intercepted her path and grabbed her hands gently "Ino-chan, I'm sorry, had a thing with my dad last night and I was out cold since then till about an hour ago, I'm really sorry I missed your party" Naruto nervously apologized.

It almost seemed to work, for about a second ino stood still, her eyes covered by her blonde bangs, she seemed to be muttering something incoherently that none of the others could make out. "ino-chan are you o-" whatever he was going to say was cut short as he stumbled into the pool with a splash courtesy a violent shove by Ino.

A\N: and so it ends….for now that is, anyways tell me what you think via reviews…it's my first story so don't be too harsh . Anyways lemme know how you feel about the au, and also there will be no character bashing, Ino is just going through a phase. This fic is going to be action centric, with a splice of drama and romance, so please hang on to your lunch, strap in and enjoy the ride.

-Daveedace


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: here's chapter 2 of "Ninja" sorry it took so long to come post, I had issues with my oven …

Anyways here it is, I added a little fight scene into this one, I'm not really good with these but I intend to get better. Anyways enjoy the chappie, tell me how I can improve through reviews and remember to favorite and here's a quick shout out to my first reviewer: "thanks a lot bro, thanks for the review!"

DISCLAIMER: Kishimoto says I don't own Naruto, but I don't believe him...

CHAPTER 2: REVEALATIONS

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A cold shivering figure sat on the lawn of the Yamanaka's home, his blonde hair was dripping wet alongside his clothes, he had a towel wrapped around his shoulders, his eyes where shadowed by the long bangs of his wet blonde hair, faint trails of tears streamed down his baby blue eyes…. "we're through..." he muttered to himself in an almost inaudible whisper.

Beside him was his childhood friend and brother in all but blood, he had jet black hair and a dark pair of eyes to match, an athletic build that would make most pro-athletes green with envy, he had a chiseled, handsome face to match. All in all, Uchiha Sasuke was unrealistically handsome and had a bad-boy swag that seemed to drive the opposite gender mad.

"hey dobe, are you gonna be okay?" he asked as he looked over the pool his friend had become acquainted with over the last few minutes.

"I don't know man, I really don't know" Naruto rasped out heavily

"it's probably for the best you know?" sasuke said as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder

"…" he got no response from Naruto, said person just kept staring at the pool

"oi dobe! Are you there?" he was feeling uncomfortable with the silence because Naruto was never quiet! When he was angry he shouted, when he was happy he shouted, hell when he was hungry he shouted! Naruto was never quiet…. Sasuke was worried.

"Sasuke?" the blonde finally questioned

"you were spacing out on me dobe"

"oh? Sorry about that" he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly"

"It's alright, I was only asking if you were going to be okay"

"don't worry about it I'll be fine"

"if you say so… well I think its high time we left this place, sakura already sent the guests away so it's just the gang that's here. Do you wanna say goodbye before we leave?"

"naah I'm good I'd rather not" Naruto chuckled sheepishly

"okay you can wait for me in the car, lemme go and grab Hinata real quick alright?" sasuke said as he hopped to his feet to go and find the pale eyed Hyuga.

As sasuke disappeared around the corner Naruto got up and made his way outside the backyard towards the parking lot, it took less than a minute to locate Sasuke's car. While Naruto waited beside the Uchiha's car he couldn't help but feel that he was being watched, he turned around swiftly and he saw a shadow quickly retreat into an alley, "is anyone there?" he asked half-heartedly, "is anyone there" he yelled a little louder, he got no reply so he chucked it down to his mind playing tricks on him.

Sasuke walked into the parking lot five minutes later with the Hyuga heiress in tow "you ready Naruto?" he asked as he got into the driver's seat. The blonde wordlessly got in the back seat while the Hyuga rode shotgun with Sasuke.

After nearly twenty minutes of driving in awkward silence sasuke decided to ease the tension that the blonde seemed to radiate "oi dobe Hinata and I are planning on hitting the gym tomorrow, are you down?" sasuke asked as he locked eyes with the blonde through his rear-view mirror.

"I'd love to, but I don't think it's a good idea, Ino's mum owns that gym and Ino would probably be there, hell the whole gang would be there and I don't want a pity party"

"if you say so dobe, just promise me you won't go all broody and emo on me" sasuke said with a mild snort

"like you did while we were still in grade school?" Naruto fired back with mirth evident in his voice

"I had every right to brood after what Itachi did!" sasuke scowled lightly

"he only moved out of your parents' house" Naruto replied with a smug look on his face

"whatever dobe"

"love you too teme"

The tension seemed to alleviate after the conversation, and Naruto now realized that Hinata had been quiet the whole ride home "oi Hinata-chan, what's up you seem awfully quiet" The shy Hyuga let out a small "eep" at the sudden attention she was receiving from the blonde "I-I'm okay-y Naruto-kun, I just didn't know what to say to make you feel better, and I really didn't want to upset you"

"it's okay Hinata, I know it's not your fault and I would never be upset with you, besides if the teme here can't piss me off I don't think you can" he gave her a bright smile that seemed to calm the shy girl's nerves.

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful, small conversations were held between the three, some jokes were cracked at the blonde's expense much to his ire and they listened to some songs via the car radio.

A few minutes later they pulled over at the Hyuga's mansion which was pretty much a small town on the inside and Hinata got off here and surprisingly sasuke got off and walked her to the front gates, some words were exchanged between the both of them which the blonde couldn't hear, but at the end of the short conversation Hinata tipped a little and kissed the Uchiha on the lips, the passionate kiss lasted for about fifteen seconds straight "well I did not see that coming'" the blonde whispered from the backseat where he was watching his two friends suck each other's faces

Sasuke returned to the car with a light jog, he had his Uchiha poker face on "so?" Naruto asked with a cheeky grin

"what?" sasuke fired back feigning ignorance

"when were you going to tell me that you and Hinata finally got together?"

Now if sasuke were from a lesser family than the Uchiha he would have blushed a bright shade of red, fortunately as kami deemed it he was an Uchiha and uchihas do not blush. "so I take it that you saw us?" sasuke smirked with pride "well we've been going out for a while now, it's no big deal" sasuke shrugged nonchalantly.

"No big deal? NO BIG DEAL?!" Naruto grabbed his collar "you bagged the hottest and nicest girl aside from ino-chan in probably the whole city and you say it's no big deal!" Naruto hollered as he frantically shook the Uchiha who was already swirly-eyed from his actions

Having enough of been shook like a ragdoll sasuke shoved him off "Get off of me dobe" he re-adjusted his clothes into place "I said it's no big deal because it's no big deal, it's not like we're getting married or anything" he faced his blonde companion with a hard soul piercing glare "she waited for you, every day you know? since grade school she always hoped you'd get over your stupid crush on Ino, she would always die a little when she saw you chase after her, and you nailed the coffin when you started dating Ino"

Naruto looked at his friend with wide eyes "Teme are you serious?" Naruto asked trying to wrap his mind around the fact that someone like Hinata would settle for a person like him, he always knew Hinata always acted weird when they were younger, she always sat alone, she always seemed to blush whenever he spoke to her and he thought she was sick or something, it was towards the end of grade school that she seemed to open up towards he and his friends, but currently he noticed she seemed to grow up into quite the beauty; her creamy rich skin, long lavender hair that went all the way to her lower back, exotic white eyes and lastly a killer hour glass figure that would put most models to shame. He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts, this was his best friend's girlfriend he was talking about and besides his break up with Ino was like an hour and thirty minutes ago! "well umm, I'm sorry?" he wasn't quite sure what to say here he was very confused on issues like this.

"it's okay dobe, no point crying over spilled milk but you should talk to her though" sasuke sighed "she needs the closure"

"alright then, I'll see what I can do" Naruto shrugged

Sasuke started the car's engine and pulled out into the road to resume their journey back home when he looked at Naruto through the rear view mirror

"oi dobe"

"yes teme?"

"Hinata is way hotter than Ino"

"Hn" Naruto replied with an Uchiha like grunt

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(Mean while at the Hyuga Mansion)

The pale eyed Hyuga made her way inside her family's mansion after her intimate goodbye with her boyfriend, she was about to head into the mansion's main entrance when she abruptly stopped and swerved on her heel making a complete three-sixty turn on her heels "come out I know you're there!" she said with some steel in her voice, the persona of the shy Hyuga heiress now completely lost.

The hidden figure stepped out of the shadows with a slow taunting clap "I see you've finally stopped chasing after that blonde idiot and settled for someone more fitting of a heiress like yourself" the figure stepped into the light completely, he had long brown hair that went past his waist, he had the robes of a noble on which hid some of his physical appearance, he had the traditional white eyes of the Hyuga that marked their family's doujutsu but his lacked the lavender tint that Hinata's seemed to have "I'm must say I'm quite impressed that you managed to snag the Uchiha heir, I guess failures like yourself have their moments eh" he taunted with no emotions present on his face. He stood a few feet from Hinata and she could see that he was at least two inches taller than her.

"My personal affairs are of no concern to you Neji-niisan" Hinata said, trying her best not to allow fear or intimidation play on her features and her overall posture. Neji was her cousin who was older than her with a year, he was from the branch house and was a prodigy that was acknowledged even by the main house, Neji was an asshole most of the time because he believed that fate controlled everything and the Hyuga were superior to everyone else, and he was peeved that someone as weak willed as Hinata was going to lead the Hyuga clan in a few years.

"My apologies Hinata-sama" he apologized with as much venom he could muster, with a quick bow he left his younger cousin's presence pissed that he could not get the usual reaction out of her.

As she watched him leave down the spiral path that lead to the branch house she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The confrontations with Neji were becoming more and more frequent, she knew he actually meant well in his own twisted way, he was trying to shape her into a proper heiress at least that's what she hoped. She turned around and made her way back to the main house's entrance ' _I wonder if Hanabi-chan is awake'_ she thought as she made her way inside.

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( The Yamanaka Residence)

"NARUTO-KUUUUNNN!" Ino bawled on her bedroom floor, her make-up was runny and her long blonde ponytail was in dis-array, she was in her room with her best-friend Sakura who had been trying in vain to console the latter.

"Ino you broke up with him!" she yelled exasperatedly

"I knowww, b-but he should have begged" she let out a loud wail "he always does"

"well not this time I guess" Sakura said with a tone of finality, Sakura never got why her friend always treated Naruto the way she did, Naruto was an all-round good guy that she would kill to have, the fact that he was handsome, athletic and filthy rich was just an added bonus. She knew her best-friend had not really been as committed as Naruto was and she still couldn't understand why, but in the end she was Ino's best-friend and she had to be there for her.

"Ne Ino, you really shouldn't treat Naruto like this you know?" Shikamaru said as he walked in through Ino's room door, he stopped directly in front of Ino and locked eyes with her "Naruto deserves better than this, I still don't understand why he put up with all of your crap. The guy has been there for you and treat him like trash, I want to know why and I'm not leaving till I do" he sighed as he sat down cross-legged in front of her.

Ino stared at Shikamaru like he had grown a second head, she always knew that he was the most intelligent of their group but at the same time he was the laziest. Shikamaru never spoke unless he absolutely needed to and even when he did he kept it simple and short, when she tried to get on his nerves he would simply call her troublesome and move on. So having Shikamaru berating her on her relationship was totally unexpected and not normal.

Ino looked over to sakura to see if her friend could bail her out, but the look in her friend's eye told her that she was also interested in finding out what was going on. Now Ino knew she was cornered because Shikamaru wasn't letting up any time soon, she locked gazes with her pineapple haired teammate to see if she could out glare him, but Nara Shikamaru held strong and unwavering, she let out a long and tired sigh "alright fine, but nothing I say leaves this room okay? And promise you won't think I'm crazy" she asked with pleading eyes.

Both Shikamaru and Sakura gave a slow and hesitant nod because they were not sure of the manner of information that they were about to receive.

"you can trust me Ino" Sakura smiled reassuringly, while Shikamaru just nodded prompting her to go on.

"okay then" she said as she calmed her fraying nerves "it all started when I stole a Jutsu scroll from my dad's library..."

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(Sasuke's Car)

"lemme get this straight *snicker* you got into a fight with your dad *snicker* and then he punched you unconscious, also breaking your nose in the process?" Sasuke asked tethering on the brink of laughter.

"Oi teme I got a good few licks in damnit!" Naruto murmured as he turned his gaze outside the car window to hide an embarrassing tinge of red on his cheeks. That seemed to be the last straw for sasuke because no sooner than Naruto said that he burst into a hysterical fit of laughter.

"oi teme?"

"y-yeah?" sasuke tried to reign the laugh in

"Do you know what the word shinobi means?" Naruto asked as he recalled his conversation with his father.

Sasuke who has reveling in his feat of hysteria slammed the brakes so hard that the tires left skid marks that were at least two meters long on the asphalt, he turned to his best friend with no evidence of the mirth that was there a few seconds ago.

"where did you hear that word?"

Naruto felt like a kid being scolded for using a curse word for the first time, he didn't understand why sasuke was making a big deal out of this.

"I heard my dad say something like that before I came into the room that night"

"did he tell you what it meant" sasuke questioned, his Uchiha glare not letting up one bit.

"no, I never got to ask, hell I just remembered it right now"

"then forget about it Naruto, erase it from your mind"

"why? What does it mean teme?"

"forget about it Naruto, never ever repeat that word if you want to live"

Sasuke's final statement seemed to get Naruto to pause for a bit, he wondered why sasuke looked almost frightened, and to be honest it worried him a little bit.

"all right fine teme I won't bring it up again"

"Hn" Sasuke turned around to start the car engine again.

The car's engine roared to life as it sped off from its impromptu stop in the middle of the streets, if they had waited a few seconds more they would have seen a figure clad in black materialize out of the corner of the street they were parked on.

The remainder of the journey home was made in silence but both their minds seemed to be in a frenzy as they bought pondered on the previous conversation " _why would Hokage-sama make such a mistake? If word got out about this, the dobe would have hunter-nin on his ass"_ Sasuke thought as he made his way through the dark streets of the city.

Naruto on the other hand was perplexed, he now knew that sasuke had some information on the word 'shinobi' and he wasn't disclosing, what made things worse is that sasuke seemed frightened for some reason and he couldn't understand why. This was a conspiracy and Namikaze Naruto was interested in this cover-up

Sasuke's car made a slow halt as he arrived at the gates of the Namikaze estate, it was half the size of the Hyuga's mansion simply because unlike a whole clan living in it the Namikazes where just one family. Naruto stepped out of the car, to his left he could already see his trusty butler; Iruka waiting on him. He walked over to the driver's seat "hey teme, thanks for the ride home, I owe you one" Naruto called out as he flashed him a foxy grin and a thumbs-up.

"don't worry about it dobe, just remember what we talked about and forget that word"

Naruto just turned around and threw a wave over his shoulders "yeah I will"

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( The Yamanaka Residence)

Shikamaru and sakura stared wide eyes at their blonde friend, said blonde just regaled them on how she stole a forbidden technique from her dad and learned it, she went on further to explain how the technique projected her mind into parallel timelines and how there was currently more than one Ino in her head.

"you're joking right? Please tell me you're joking Ino" sakura nervously laughed as she sought answers from her friend.

"I'm afraid she's not" Shikamaru said from his spot on the floor "I noticed a few days ago that Ino wasn't totally herself, the Yamanakas are always of sound mind because they are masters of mind techniques and behaviors, they never develop nervous-tics or display signs of mental imbalance because the mind is their specialty" Shikamaru got up from his spot on the floor and stretched until he felt a satisfying pop, he turned around and headed towards the door but immediately stopped as he gripped the handle "Ino for the past few weeks you've been the exact opposite of all the qualities I mentioned, you should tell your dad about this before it gets any worse, you're an important member of our team and we can't have you dysfunctional now that the Chunin exams are so close"

"Shikamaru is right, we don't know to what extent that technique damaged your mind, I think its best if you spoke to dad about this and besides you don't want my team kicking your ass in the exams right?" sakura asked with a wide grin.

"like hell you will!" Ino fired back, she then sighed in resignation "I'll talk to my dad about this in the morning, and thank you guys for hearing me out" she smiled as she hugged sakura.

Shikamaru gave a small smile as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, the feeling of his phone vibrating alerted him to an incoming call " _Sasuke?"_ why was sasuke calling him? He knew it was going to be troublesome but Sasuke was one of his close friends do he'd help him out

"yo, Uchiha what's up?" he drawled out as he answered the call

"Shikamaru we need to talk something terrible happened!" the panic was evident in Sasuke's voice

Now Shikamaru was worried because he had never heard Uchiha Sasuke this shaken up, Sasuke was the cool guy, the voice of reason and never the panicked one "calm down Sasuke, whatever it is I'm sure it's not worth getting worked up over, It's not like Itachi came back" Shikamaru tried to calm the Uchiha down

"you're right, but this is almost just as important, we need to meet up and discuss, this isn't something we can talk about over the phone"

"damn you Uchiha, it's almost eleven pm, I'm not missing out on my sleep for your girl trouble" Shikamaru growled

"girl trouble? NARUTO FUCKING KNOWS!" the Uchiha nearly screamed out

"wait for me at the coffee shop on fifth, I'll meet you in thirty-minutes" Shikamaru concluded as he hung up, if what sasuke told him was the truth then their friend was in serious danger regardless of who his father was, and if Naruto ends up digging up too much he might have to be erased. Naruto was a close friend, everyone in their little group liked him, but there were somethings they couldn't tell him because of the double life they lived, Shikamaru once asked his dad why Naruto wasn't a shinobi like the rest of them and his father told him that many years ago while Shikamaru and his friends were toddlers the current clan heads decided to bring their kids together so they could form bonds at a young age and grow up to be a strong generation of shinobi together, he said the current Hokage; Minato Namikaze was on board with the idea initially but when his son became of age for his training to begin he pulled out and declared Naruto a civilian, and to this day Konoha's council were still bitter about it.

Shikamaru sighed as he grabbed his jacket off the coat rack and made his way into the darkness, he could tell that it was going to be a long night "troublesome"

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Sasuke sat inside the coffee shop on the fifth, he ordered a cup of black coffee, he slowly sipped his brew as he waited for Shikamaru to arrive. " _I shouldn't have just let him go, I should have wiped his mind with the Sharingan"_ sasuke berated himself, because his indecisiveness could cost his friend his life. Sasuke's thoughts were cut short when the lights in the coffee shop went off, sasuke was immediately on the edge, his keen eyes searched the darkness for where the pending attack might come from, his ears caught the faint whistle of an incoming projectile from the left and he barrel-rolled out of its path, looking behind him he saw the familiar presence of a kunai pinned into where he was no less than a second ago. Sasuke flipped the table on his right over and hid behind it so he was back to back with the wall and the table covered his front " _damnit, I'm cornered, out of ammo and I don't even know how many people I'm up against"_ sasuke swore mentally. No less than a second later the table in front of sasuke was assaulted with a barrage of kunai, he pressed his body to the ground as he waited for the ongoing assault to disperse, after a few more seconds the attack seized and the room became eerily quiet, sasuke was about to let out a silent breath of relief when he heard the sound of hissing "shit" he swore as he kawarimi'd himself with a nearby stool as the table which sasuke found refuge with a few seconds ago blew up.

"I think we got him" one of the assailants piped up, unknowingly disclosing his location to sasuke

"he's an Uchiha, there's no way that would have done him in" a deeper voice reprimanded the first

"spread out and find him!" a feminine voice commanded the previous two

" _a three-man squad eh? Time to kick things up a notch"_ sasuke smirked as his dark eyes bled red with three tomoes swirling in both

Sasuke crept vertically along the wall until he was directly behind the first enemy; "Kenji behind you!" his female teammate shouted from across the room, Kenji was too late to react, sasuke buried one of the discarded kunai hilt deep into his neck, a satisfying tide of blood gushed out of the injury as Kenji dropped to the ground lifeless "one down…" sasuke was cut short as the two remaining teammates charged at him he ducked under a fist thrown by the buff male with the deep voice, he attempted to sweep the feet of the female leader but she avoided the strike with a well-placed leap.

Now that they were closer to him he could make out their features with the help of the Sharingan, the large male was like 6'9 in height and his dark spandex clothing were almost being ripped apart by his bulging muscles, his face was covered with a dark face mask that seemed to be made-out of the same material as the spandex and only showed his dark brown eyes. The lady was a lot easier on the eyes, she had a short cloak thrown over her skintight spandex suit, her black hair was done up in a ponytail and her face mask was limited to only her lower face, she also had arm bracers that probably hid or activated some sort of weapon so he knew he had to be wary, sasuke could tell that the man was at least a Jounin if his chakra reserves were anything to go by while the lady was a high Chunin to low Jounin. Sasuke's observation was cut short as the female shinobi charged him with a pair of kunai in hand, she performed complex slashing maneuvers which sasuke avoided expertly "you might as well give up now, I can predict your moves before you even make them" sasuke smirked victoriously at the frustrated look on the kunoichi's face

"Earth style: head hunter Jutsu" the muscular man roared out as his hands emerged from underneath Sasuke, he wrapped Sasuke's legs with his hands and pulled him underground until only his head remained above ground. The brawny man let out a victorious laugh as he bent down so he was eye level with sasuke "never take your eyes off your opponent brat, now we have some questions for you" he reached out to grab sasuke by the hair

"now if you were paying attention you'd have heard me tell your friend over there that I can see everything.. and by the way never look an Uchiha in the eyes" sasuke grinned as he burst into a tidal wave of electricity that shocked the large man senseless

"lightning clone?" the lady growled out as she took cover from the explosion that seemed to have frozen her partner in place

A loud chirping noise pierced through the silence of the store, it came from a large current of electricity that seemed to be gathered on Sasuke's palm, said person was perched upside down on the ceiling, his Sharingan swirling menacingly as he locked on to the large man that was frozen in place

"Chidori" Sasuke yelled as he launched himself straight at the man, the large man's eyes widened as he saw the blue surge of lightning heading his way, he tried valiantly to move out of its path but his body was still paralyzed from the previous surprise attack

No less than a second later Sasuke's hand was buried elbow deep into the large man's shoulder, he let out a bestial roar as the lightning ate through his flesh, snapped his bones and severed his nerves, his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he crumpled down in a heap in front of sasuke

Sasuke turned to the sole remaining member of the group "who are you people and what the hell do you want?" sasuke glared at the lone female, his red Sharingan eyes seemed to glow in the dark giving of an eerily visage of death

The lady didn't feel so confident as she stared at the murderer of her two teammates, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, their employer said they just had to grab the Uchiha kid and bag him, he was supposed to only be a genin, he was supposed to be weak.

"w-we're rogue-nins, we were hired to capture y-you and your blond friend" she shakily stammered out

"who hired you?" sasuke asked in an eerie calm tone

"G-gatou" she was almost in tears now, the intense gaze of the Sharingan coupled together with Sasuke's mild genjutsu was proving too much for her to bear

"The guy who owns the shipping company?" sasuke asked a little perplexed by what she was insinuating, Gatou was a business man known by many, he was also the owner of the largest shipping company in the city, so sasuke was a little confused with what someone like that would want with him or Naruto, sure they were both heirs to really important families but gatou didn't seem like someone who was desperate for cash.

Sasuke let out a slow breath as he wrapped his mind around the events that transpired this evening "your large friend is still alive but barely, take him and leave" sasuke growled as he turned towards the exit of the café.

As sasuke made his way out of the café his heightened senses alerted him to the presences of three new individuals, his Sharingan could make out their forms as clear as day; the first one who obviously was in charge was moderately tall and perfectly toned, he had spiky white hair that seemed to defy gravity, his headband on his fore-head leaned more to the left to cover up his left eye, he also had a face mask that started from the bridge of his nose all the way down to his neck, he was decked out in standard Anbu gear, grey sleeveless armor with black pants to match, armguards attached to fingerless gloves and metal shin-guards where the only accessories he had on. The remaining three where dressed similarly, the only difference being the animal face-masks the other two wore.

"you're late as usual Kakashi-sensei" sasuke smirked as he shook hands with the one eyed leader now identified as Kakashi

"mah mah sasuke is that anyway to greet your sensei" Kakashi mock-asked in a whiny voice

Despite the laid back attitude Kakashi seemed to have on Sasuke knew that the man in front of him was one of the most dangerous shinobi alive, he was the youngest Anbu captain ever recorded in history till date, but it was no surprise really because Hatake Kakashi was the sole apprentice of the fourth Hokage; Minato Namikaze who was said to be the most powerful man alive. Sasuke knew that if the Anbu were here there could only be two reasons why, the first would be that they knew of Naruto's recent discovery and were on their way to wipe his mind of that knowledge but that didn't seem to be the case because they were here with him and not with Naruto, so that probably meant they were after the missing-nin that attacked him earlier.

"what are you doing here sensei? Shouldn't be on some black ops or something?" sasuke inquisitively asked as he looked at the two figures that stood like statues behind his sense, he couldn't even feel them breathe and it unnerved him a little bit.

"and who says I'm not?" Kakashi replied with a weird eye-smile

"o-okay?" sasuke responded dumbly, he was a little put off by the vague answer but he knew Kakashi was just trying to pick at him…and it was working.

"well?" sasuke scowled at his sensei who was busy staring into the café that had just been a battle-ground a few seconds ago.

"well you know that I can't tell you the specs of an ANBU operation" Kakashi responded dryly as he dipped his hands into his hip pouch and pulled out a little orange book and started to read, completely ignoring sasuke.

"Neko, find the corpse and get it sent in for autopsy" Kakashi ordered, the ANBU operative with the cat-like mask vanished into the dark café to carry out the given order.

Kakashi turned to the last one behind him "Tenzo, find the owner of the café, wipe his mind of the recent events and give his shop a nice makeover while you're at it" Kakashi finished with a lazy wave of his hands, his eyes never leaving his little orange book for a second.

The last ANBU operative vanished in a similar fashion as the first, no doubt off to carry out his orders. Sasuke gave his sensei a heated look that the aloof Anbu captain seemed to completely ignore.

"my team and I were after the missing-nin that attacked you" Kakashi finally said after a few moments of tense silence.

"I'm sorry I let those two get away sensei" grunted out as he looked at his feet.

"you should never regret showing mercy sasuke, that's what separates us from them and mindless psychopaths" Kakashi assured sasuke as he kept on reading his book.

"but when you do show mercy give them a reason to never come back, maybe chop off a limb or two?" Kakashi finished with his strange eye smile.

"well at least now you know that they'll be returning to their employer now and his name is Gatou by the way" sasuke smirked as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Sasuke turned around and made his way to his car, he was already fed up with this crazy night, all he wanted right now was to get into his bed and sleep this night away.

"keep an eye on Naruto, I wouldn't want to have to pay him a visit" Kakashi called out loudly from where he was across the road, his eyes never leaving his book

"How d-" sasuke was interrupted as his phone began to ring, " _it's Shikamaru!"_ sasuke had forgotten about the link-up due to the surprise attack.

"Yo Shikamaru what's up" sasuke greeted as he picked the call.

"I'm running a little late, had to stop by at Chouji's house to drop something off"

"alright wait there I'll meet you in five"

"alright then" Shikamaru ended the call.

Sasuke hopped into his car, waved goodbye to his sensei and sped off into the night, Chouji's house was just around the corner.

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( The Namikaze Estate)

Naruto stepped out of the showers, he dried his blonde hair with an orange towel, "sasuke sure was hiding something" Naruto mumbled as he pulled his pajama pants on "he totally freaked out on m-" Naruto's ramble was cut short as he stared at a black box wrapped like a present on his bed "well that wasn't there a second ago" Naruto whispered out in shock as he approached the strange package, upon closer inspection he could see a card attached to it, he carefully picked up the card and examined it. The card was completely black and devoid of any design apart from a strange red cloud that was embedded on the front cover,

" _the answers shall be revealed to only those that seek"_ were the only wordings written inside the card.

Naruto placed the card down and picked up the box, he looked at the obsidian colored parcel foe a few minutes before he started to undo the bindings gently, after about four seconds of continuous unwrapping he was finally able to get the lid off

"No fucking way!..."

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A\N: That's a wrap folks, leave a review, hit the favourite button an lemme know how you feel!

-zeetrex22


	3. Chapter 3: Homecoming

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**_ _What's good people? Here's another chapter for y'all, hope you enjoy it, hope you like it. I put in a little surprise in this chapter, see if you can spot em. Finally, read, review and lemme know what you think!_

 _ **DISCLAIMER:**_

 _Hinata: zeetrex-san does not own Naruto or Naruto shippuden_

 _Zeetrex22: *gasps in horror* WHO TOLD YOU THAT!_

CHAPTER 3: Homecoming

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Namikaze Minato stood at the top of the Hokage monument as the first rays of daylight broke through the morning sky, the village hidden in the leafs was just about waking up, in the distance he could see patrol squads changing shifts and by the gates shinobi leaving and returning from missions passed through. The village hidden in the leaves or Konoha as it was often referred to was more of a militaristic base than a village for it had no civilians on it, furthermore the village inhabitants were skilled warriors who harnessed and mastered the mysterious energy popularly known as chakra, these warriors were ranked by their abilities, capacity and performance with this said energy, the ranks varied from Genin to Chunin to Jounin and sometimes even Anbu. The village was a haven for these warriors and each and every one of them would lay down their lives without question to protect it.

"Hokage-sama, my squad and I have returned" a figure materialized from the shadows and bowed on a knee.

"Report Kakashi" Minato replied without breaking his concentration on the morning sunrise.

"I already have a mission report scroll on your desk sensei" Kakashi yawned as he got up and stretched

"so why did you bother coming all the way here then?" Minato asked with his back still turned to Kakashi.

"well I have some important business I think we need to talk about" Kakashi replied with his famous eye smile.

"all forms of business will be discussed at my office when I'm on the clock Kakashi" minato replied tiredly.

"I know that sensei but this is about Naruto" Kakashi gently pointed out"

"perhaps we should talk this over some ramen?" Minato smiled as he turned to face Kakashi fully.

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(NAMIKAZE RESIDENCE)

"RAMEEEEENNNNN!" Naruto roared as he raced down the flight of stairs leading to the dining room.

"you shouldn't run down the stairs young master" iruka gently chided as he served Naruto a plate of the steaming hot noodles.

"sorry iruka-san, but I can't help it" Naruto settled into his chair and broke his chopsticks, with a quick "itadakimasu" he dug in. "this is really good iruka-san" he cheered after his first few mouthfuls.

Iruka gave a half bow and carried on with his duties which were just cleaning up the dishes at the moment.

"ne iruka-san, where's Kaa-san? Naruto asked in-between mouthfuls of the heavenly dish that was ramen.

"she had a meeting she had to attend for nine-am" iruka responded as he dried his hands with a towel, "she also asked me to tell you to come around the office today" iruka finished as he turned around to make his way to the upper floors of the house.

"Iruka wait!" Naruto stopped him abruptly, a small tinge of pink stained his cheeks because of his outburst.

"is there a problem young master? The ramen perhaps?" iruka asked as he tilted his head to the side a little.

"N-no the ramen is fine really" Naruto quickly replied as he waved his arms in the air frantically, "the thing is I need your help with something and it's a little personal."

"well if this is about Ino-san then I think it was for the best you two split up" iruka said with a tone of finality.

"no it's not about ino-chan either…. it's something my Tou-san(dad) said the last time we met, and when I told sasuke about it he nearly flipped out" Naruto finished as he slurped the last of his noodles.

"and what might that be?" iruka asked as the topic at hand now piqued his interest.

"well I don't really remember all the details but I know it had something to do with the word 'shinobi'" Naruto said bashfully as he idly played with the chopsticks in his hands.

The only thing stopping Umino Iruka's eyes from bulging out of its sockets where his self-respect, poise and lastly his Shinobi training. Umino iruka was a Chunin ranked shinobi of Konohagakure shortly known as Konoha, he was currently the under-cover body guard of the Namikaze family although most of them knew his status as shinobi bar Naruto.

"well that is a strange phrase, but I'm sorry I do not believe that I can be of much help, might I suggest some research?" iruka offered smoothly, he never understood why minato prevented his son from becoming a shinobi it was really absurd because a powerful man such as minato would obviously understand the importance of leaving a legacy behind. Iruka couldn't flat-out give Naruto the answer he wanted but he could at least push him in the right direction.

Iruka looked across the table where Naruto was seated, the young man's brows where knitted in concentration, thinking of where he could perform his research.

"Naruto" iruka called out

"heh?" the blonde dumbly replied

"you said you heard minato-sama use this word right?"

"mmhmm" Naruto nodded positively

"then I suggest you begin your research in his study" the butler shinobi pointed out

"you're a genius iruka-san!" Naruto jumped up in excitement, his joy was short-lived when he realized a major draw-back.

"the door to Tou-san's study is locked with his biometrics" the blonde wailed as he pulled on his hair in frustration "I'm never gonna get in" Naruto started to unleash series of intricate curses aimed at his father

*Ahem* iruka loudly cleared his throat to get the blonde's attention

"what's up iruka, you got a cold or something?"

"No I do not have a cold!" iruka almost snapped with a throbbing vein on his fore-head

"so what's the big idea? I'm trying to curse at my old man here!"

"well I just seem to have an access card here that I use to get into his study when I need to clean" iruka gave an uncharacteristic smug smile.

"Awesome! Can I have it?" Naruto gave a megawatt grin as he held his hands out.

"No! of course not!" iruka stated matter of factly, "handing this to you would be betraying my masters' trust"

Naruto face faulted with a loud thump, he flipped back up and stared at iruka as though the butler had kicked his puppy.

"but If I were to lose it while cleaning the house it would be very unfortunate" iruka said over-exaggeratingly waving the access card as he suddenly 'lost' hold of it and it flew into Naruto's empty ramen bowl with a small clattering sound.

"oh dear! I seem to have misplaced minato-sama's access card, perhaps I should search for it on the upper floors" Iruka bemoaned, he turned on his heel and headed to the upper floors of the house

when iruka finally disappeared up the stairs Naruto took hold of the access card, it had a regular rectangle shape with gold trimmings, the most iconic thing about the card was perhaps the silver leaf symbol on it but Naruto paid it no mind. He finally had a way to get into his father's study to do some research work! Today was already shaping up to be a great day.

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(UCHIHA RESIDENCE)

Sasuke looked himself over in his bathroom mirror as he prepared to go out, he had a black tank top on with the Uchiha family crest on the back, an ash colored jogging pants on with a dark pair of sneakers to match. He was meeting up with Hinata at the gym for some light training and after then he'd probably take her out somewhere nice and they would have lunch together. He's grooming was interrupted when his phone rang "sakura?" he read out the caller id, he was a little surprised sakura would be calling him this early in the morning.

"hey sakura" he greeted cordially.

"good-morning sasuke-kuuunnn!" she greeted a little over enthusiastically

"I have a girlfriend" he replied in a deadpan.

"I know that silly! I'm excited because Kakashi sensei asked us to meet up with him by twelve for team training!" she chided cheerily.

"team training? Why? I'm in peak condition!" the Uchiha groaned.

"well so am I but he says it's the final training we'll get as a team before the Chunin exams, and that's in a few weeks by the way"

"alright fine I'll meet up with you guys at the training ground, I have to meet with Hinata now" the Uchiha concluded.

"awwwww give hina-chan a kiss for me!" sakura cheered once again.

The Uchiha hung up the call swiftly, he silently cursed his sensei for the impromptu training session they were going to have today, all he wanted was to spend some quality time with Hinata but no! the darn universe had to screw with him. He really didn't have a problem training with his teammates today, the thing is he couldn't stand the third member of his team, and in his eyes that was the fourth hokakge's biggest screw up.

"Sasuke-chan, Hinata-chan is here for you!" Sasuke's mother; Mikoto Uchiha called from the kitchen downstairs.

"I'll be down in a minute mom!" sasuke hollered as he hurried to pack up his bags.

(UCHIHA RESIDENCE: KITCHEN)

"So tell me hina-chan how is your shinobi career coming along?" Mikoto asked the pale-eyed Hyuga heiress as she handed her a cup of tea.

"it's coming along fine Mikoto-san, my team and I have completed a large amount of c-ranks and recently we finished one a-rank, Kurenai sensei says were good enough to be Chunin now but we won't really know until after the exams." Hinata finished with a sip of her tea.

"that's really good, I didn't have an a-ranked mission till I was twenty, it seems the younger generation is already outdoing mine." Mikoto smiled.

"how is Itachi-san?" Hinata asked.

"my little Itachi-chan is good, he calls once in a while and from what his father tells me he's planning to retire soon" Mikoto poured herself another cup of tea.

"retire!?" Hinata almost choked on her tea, "but he's barley nineteen, he made Anbu captain at thirteen and has a clean sheet of A to S-ranked missions on his records, how could he possibly want to retire?"

"I really don't know, Itachi-chan has achieved so much in his career and he's not even at his peak yet, but I ultimately respect his decision" Mikoto shrugged.

Anything Hinata was going to say was interrupted as sasuke appeared down the stairs with a duffel bag in tow.

"you going on a trip sasuke-chan?" Mikoto asked a little confused at the duffel bag her son had slung on his back.

"well I've got team training with Kakashi in our training ground in Konoha so I thought I'd stay a few days and get some extra training in" sasuke gave her a peck on the cheek as he moved towards Hinata. He grabbed the Hyuga heiress gently by the waist and planted a passionate kiss on her lips as they both disappeared in a swirl of leaves

*sigh* "to be young and in love" Mikoto sighed as she cleared the tea-set from the dining table, both her boys were growing up to be strong and powerful shinobi that was what any parent would want and she was happy, so she couldn't understand why Minato barred Naruto from the shinobi program.

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(KONOHA: SHOPPING DISTRICT)

Hatake Kakashi walked through the streets of Konoha, he had his trademark icha-icha series out as he read the high-definition smut it contained *giggle* "Akane you naughty-naughty girl" he giggled perversely as he continued his descent down the street. He passed a few stores in relative silence until his peripheral vision caught sight of someone he hadn't seen in a while.

"yo Itachi!" he called out with a friendly wave.

"Kakashi!" Itachi asked in as much shock his stoic nature could muster.

"yep, how's life treating you? I heard you were up for an early retirement"

"you know as much as I do that it's bull" Itachi replied stoically.

"so a high profile mission eh?" Kakashi asked lazily as he turned his eyes back to h is make-out series.

"it's bigger than a high profile this time, the fate of Konoha depends on it" Itachi stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked side by side with his former captain.

"hmm sounds interesting, mind sharing some deets?" Kakashi asked non-chalantly.

"you know I can't give you mission specs Tai-Chou (captain)" Itachi looked up to the sun now warming the sky.

"mah-mah Itachi I was only testing you, and quit the captain bull-shit, we're the same rank now"

Itachi gave Kakashi a look that was along the line of 'WTF are you serious', but he soon broke into a small smile, Kakashi was always the same and no amount of trauma would change that.

"tai-chou, the next time we see we might be on opposite sides of the battle field, I want you to promise me you will go for the kill" Itachi stated solemnly.

"I would never raise a hand against a comrade Itachi" Kakashi responded idly as he flipped another page of his book.

"I'm not asking you to kill me, I just need you to do some major damage, it's for the sake of my mission" Itachi calmly argued.

Kakashi stared at Itachi for a few seconds, he really couldn't decipher the enigma that was Uchiha Itachi and what was worse was the fact that his new mission might entail defecting from Konoha, even if he was older than Itachi by a few years he couldn't help but worry for the young shinobi.

"mah-mah Itachi you really need to lighten-up, I'll do as you ask but on only one condition" Kakashi yawned lackadaisically.

"what do you need tai-chou?" Itachi asked his former Anbu captain.

"I need to know if your current mission involves one Naruto Namikaze."

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(CITY PARK)

Hinata and sasuke sat under a large oak tree in the middle of the park, they had just finished a light run through a couple of blocks, Hinata had a white tank-top that exposed her midriff, black jogging shorts and a pair of lavender sneakers on her legs. She was currently sitting in-between Sasuke's thighs as he gently stroked her lavender locks, her head was placed comfortably on his chest and her arms wrapped around him tightly, this was pretty much the only time they would spend together until after the Chunin exams.

"sasuke-kun, what's the matter? You seem worried" she asked as she craned her neck up to look him directly in the eyes.

"what gave me away?" sasuke asked inquisitively, because like all other Uchiha's and elite shinobi they were masters of their emotions and experts in deception.

"it's your chakra sasuke-kun, it's unusually erratic and on the edge" she whispered out as she stroked his cheeks with her thumb.

"I'm worried about Naruto" the Uchiha confessed, "he's been asking a lot of daunting questions and I'm scared the hunter-nin will come after him. keeping the shinobi aspect of our lives from him makes me feel guilty and now that he's so close to figuring it out makes me edgy" the Uchiha let out a long sigh of exasperation.

"I'm sure Naruto-kun will be okay, Hokage-sama wouldn't let any harm come to his only son, and if Naruto-kun does figure it out I'm sure he won't be mad at you forever, he's a lot more matured now." Hinata assured the Uchiha.

"Hokage-sama doesn't have absolute power over the hunter-nin corps, but I'm sure he won't allow any harm to befall the dobe, I guess I was really worried over nothing" sasuke concluded as he pulled her in for another kiss, this one was a lot longer than the last.

"w-what was that f-for?" the Hyuga blushed a deep-deep shade of red.

"that was for always knowing what to say" he gave her an uncharacteristic Naruto-trademark grin.

She blushed an even deeper shade of red.

Sasuke's watch let out a loud electronical beep that signified the arrival of noon, "crap it's twelve already! I have to get going" sasuke rose to his feet gently so as to not hurt Hinata he dusted off his pants and then helped the Hyuga up, "I guess this is good-bye for now sasuke-kun," she gave him a warm hug that lasted for about ten seconds and then disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Sasuke turned to face the large oak tree behind him, he dipped his hands into his duffel bag and pulled out a fore-head protector with a metal plate in front, the cloth around it was dark-blue in color and had the insignia of a bronze leaf (signifying his rank as genin) embedded in the silver metal area of the fore head protector, sasuke tied the fore-head protector on his right bicep, he ran through a series of multiple hand seal before he ended on the ram seal, he then proceeded to place his hands on the large oak-tree, the leaf insignia on his fore-head protector glowed a bright green before he too was enveloped in the green light, and in a bright flash he disappeared.

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(NAMIKAZE INDUSTRIES)

Namikaze Kushina sat in front of her two high profiled clients, they were discussing an issue that had been re-occurring for the past ten years. They had finally come to a verdict that would satisfy all three of them and more importantly empower Konoha.

The male on her right had a stoic expression on his features, he had a long smooth mane of brown hair that reached past his lower back, he wore pure white robes that kept his limbs from view and also denoted his status as royalty, his pure white eyes stared at the Namikaze matriarch with something akin to exasperation because he and his associate had been on this issue for the past ten years, it wasn't that Kushina uzumaki was unnecessarily being stubborn or bull headed, she was only being careful because they were about to tamper with powers far beyond them. Hiashi Hyuga's gaze of exasperation soon turned into one of respect as he viewed the contents of the folder given to him by the Namikaze matriarch, "this is amazing Kushina-san, you've really outdone yourself this time" Hiashi praised as he finished reading the contents of the folder.

"may I have a look Hiashi-dono" his associate on his right inquired, unlike Hiashi who was dressed in a white robe, this person was garbed in black silk robes which had the Uchiha family crest on the back, he had long black hair which was tied into a short ponytail with two bangs framing both sides of his face, his eyes were as black as black could get and he had to faint vertical lines running down his eyed to his cheeks. This was Fugaku Uchiha the leader and current clan head of the Uchiha clan. "this is quite impressive" he muttered to himself as he read through the folder Hiashi had passed to him, "it seems you share your husband's genius intellect Kushina-san" he smiled as he handed back the folder to Kushina.

"thank you for the kind words Fugaku-san, as you have both seen the procedure will be monitored by both your doujutsu and some high-tech equipment of my design, we have to be certain that this procedure will be void of any errors because the smallest of miscalculations could raze this city." Kushina allowed the gravity of her words sink into the two clan heads, what they were doing could either make or mar Konoha, when she brought the issue before minato he had told her to do what she thought was best and he would support her either way. She hoped this project would make the rest of the village see that technology and cybernetics could be incorporated into the shinobi arts.

"well if that is all then we shall be on our way Kushina-san" Hyuga Hiashi said as he and Fugaku got up to leave.

Kushina stood up from her chair and offered both of them a deep bow as they both turned and left.

As soon as the door was shut Kushina let out a long tired sigh as she crashed into her comfortable office chair, she couldn't stand long boring meetings, hell she hated anything office related but she knew someone had to do it, while minato ran Konoha she ran Namikaze industries and it frustrated her to no ends she couldn't wait until Naruto became of age and took the reins of the company. Speaking of Naruto, he was supposed to have come by already she wondered what was keeping him "he probably forgot?" she asked herself, "I better call him to check"

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(NAMIKAZE RESIDENCE: MINATO'S STUDY)

Naruto let out a loud whistle as he stepped into the large room that was his father's study, the place was almost as big as his dining room that place could host up to thirty people in it. The floors were made of high quality marble, the walls were lined with rows and rows of books and was that a scroll he just saw? Weird, he hadn't seen a scroll ever! He didn't even know those still existed. On the right side of the wall they seemed to be artifacts and some other junk he couldn't recognize, he ignored those for the time being and headed towards his father's desk. The desk was made out of mahogany, it was dark brown in color and quite large, there was a computer on it, a couple of files, some pens and a brush? He didn't remember his dad being into painting…. but then again his old man was majorly a mystery to him so he didn't really bother with it.

He climbed into the desk's chair and tried to get comfortable, the chair sensed the new weight and recalibrated itself accordingly, he wasn't freaked out by the autonomy of the chair, quite a lot of their household items did that a lot. He went after the desk's drawers first, he rummaged through the wads of files and papers that seemed to be written in kanji, luckily for him he had a rough knowledge on it thanks to his mum nearly pounding it into his skull, she kept going on about culture and heritage and he was forced to learn them. He went through a few documents and couldn't really find anything on the word shinobi, he was about to cut his losses and head out when a shiny object at the bottom of the drawer caught his attention he lifted up the pile of documents that were in his way and pulled the object free, on closer inspection the said object was akin to a knife…the only problem was that it was tri-pronged like a mini trident, now that he thought about it the strange knife did seem familiar…

( _flashback: last night)_

 _Naruto slowly unwrapped the strange package he found on his bed, once he was done with the bindings he took the lid off... "no way!... are these for real?!" he asked no one in particular. Inside the box were a pair of strange looking knives and a couple of throwing stars, he knew what these items were, anyone who watched action movies would know that these were shiruken and kunai knives, he couldn't believe someone would send him these…he really didn't know how those things worked…the only weapon he was competent with was a baseball bat and that was simply because that was as simple as weapons got. He looked inside to see if there was a written note or something but there was nothing, he put back the items and hid it under his bed, his eyes caught sight of the card that came with the package, it was pitch black card with a red cloud in its center "well this is new" he had come across a lot of symbols growing up, the top clans in the city usually had some kind of symbol to represent them, but he had never seen something like this before. He tucked the card under his pillow and went to get ready for bed._

(flashback end)

"well now that I think about it this does seem like one of those kunai knives from last night." He got up from the chair and began heading towards the door, he was running his fingers around the edge of the blade trying to determine how sharp it's edge was, "well it's not even that sh- AARGH! damnit" he mentally cursed his own foolishness as his precious life fluids dripped down the cut on his fingers. He tried to hasten his pace to the door so he wouldn't make a mess that iruka had to clean up, he was almost at the door when a strange sound from behind drew his attention. It was low whirring sound as if gears were being turned, he made a U-turn on the balls of his feet to see where the nose came from, upon turning around the first thing he noticed was that the parts of the marble floor his blood had spilled was glowing a bright blue, and the most obvious observation was that there was now a hole in the center of the room with a spiraling staircase leading down into the darkness. "ookayy...that is not creepy at all" Naruto commented with a large sweat drop.

He moved to the edge of the gaping hole in the middle of the room, he peered into the darkness that was below, he was tempted to chuck a pebble down there to see how far it went but alas he had none on his person so he settled for taking the stairs into darkness, he was about to take his first step when his phone rang, "darn it, who could that be?" he swore silently, "ooh it's Kaa-chan(mum)" he said a little abashed for swearing at his mum. "hello?" he picked up the call,

"Naruto-kun didn't iruka tell you to meet me at noon?" his mother asked a little sternly.

"he did, it just kinda slipped my mind ya know?" he grumbled out.

"fine, well I wanted to inform you that your cousin will be coming to stay for a few days, be nice and make him feel welcomed" she huffed at him.

"but kaa-chan, I don't like him, he doesn't like me and most importantly he's a prick!" Naruto whined.

"watch your language young man, do you kiss ino-chan with that mouth?" she chided.

"yes mum I used to" he answered dryly.

"used to? Don't tell me you and ino-chan broke up?... we'll talk about that later, what's important is he's your cousin and he's family and what did I teach you about family?" she inquired haughtily.

"family sticks together" he growled out.

"there you go! Now I know he might be a little bit of a prick sometimes but he's a nice guy when you really get to know him. I have to go now Naruto-kun I have a meeting in five and I need to prepare, I love you!" she hung up.

"love you too kaa-chan" he muttered as the line went dead.

"there's no way I'm staying with that prick for a few days" he muttered as he whipped out his phone….

oxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

{Ramen_Overlord}: Yo teme, where are you at I need ur help ASAP!

{Devil-Eyes}: I had to go over to my grandparent's for a few days, what's up?

{Ramen_Overlord}: my cousin is coming over and I need a place to crash, I can't stand the prick

{Devil-Eyes}: I feel you dobe, but there's nothing I can do, I'm outta town

{Ramen_Overlord}: whatever teme, just don't get hit by a bus

{Devil-Eyes}: ...

Oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Naruto was pretty much out of options now, he really didn't want to stay with the guy not because he outright hated him, it was simply because his cousin had some air of superiority around him and he also looked at Naruto as if he knew some great secret that Naruto was privy to. "darn, I was looking forward to going into that hole…. well I better get ready to receive 'him" Naruto grumbled as he once again turned to leave his father's study, once he scanned the access card on the door the hole in the center of the room began to close up, marble pieces seemed to appear out of nowhere and filled the hole back up. "like I said, not creepy at all" he mumbled in a deadpan as he closed the office door behind him.

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(KONOHA TRAINNING GROUND 7)

Uchiha sasuke stared as the leaves fluttered in the wind, it was something akin to a complex but fluid dance, his mind was working hard trying to come up with training schedules that could help him in mastering the Sharingan, it wasn't that he wasn't adept enough with it at the moment, he was considered a prodigy with the doujutsu at his current level. The issue here was that his older brother Itachi was considered a beast amongst men because of his proficiency with the Uchiha doujutsu, he could do things that even his father marveled at, Itachi was so talented that some of his clansmen called him the reincarnation of Madara Uchiha whom was the most powerful Uchiha till date. Sasuke did not hate his brother but he couldn't help but feel jealous sometimes, Itachi had achieved so much that he felt he had a lot to live up to.

A loud poof alerted him to the arrival of his sensei, "yo sasuke" Kakashi hollered with a lazy wave.

"you sure took your sweet time getting here" sasuke glared at him accusingly.

"mah-mah sasuke, I saw a black cat on my way here so I had to turn around and take the long route" Kakashi replied with a flippant shrug of his shoulders.

"sure you did" sasuke replied with as much sarcasm he could muster.

The ongoing conversation was interrupted when a bright flash of green appeared in the center of the training ground.

"Kakashi sensei, sasuke-kun look who I found on my way here" sakura cheered as the green flash died down.

"hello Kakashi sensei, hello sasuke, ready to get some training in?" a new male voice asked from beside sakura. He had cropped spiky gold blonde hair and dark blue eyes, he was taller than sakura by at least two inches, he had the Konoha fore-head protector on his fore-head and was dressed in a simple jogging outfit.

This was Namikaze Menma, team seven's third and final member, Naruto's cousin and the yondaime hokakge's nephew.

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 _AUTHOR'S NOTE:_ _Bet y'all didn't see that one coming did ya? Well read, review, tell me how you feel and how I can do better and do justice to this brain child of mine. Let me apologize for the long wait on this chapter, it was my fault and I take full responsibility. Anyways what's going to happen next? Will Naruto discover a portal to Konoha? Will Ino get better? Will Itachi betray the leaf? Will Kakashi finish his icha-icha? Find out next time Ninja!_

 _-_-zeetrex22_


	4. Chapter 4: From ramen with love

_**Author's note:**_ _ **What's good y'all? It's time for another chapter of NINJA! With zeetrex22, well I should apologize for the lateness of this brain-fart but It wasn't my fault this time! Fanfiction wasn't allowing me post nada for the past two weeks because someone reported me or some shii…. Ion really care cus it's been resolved and I'm now a free man, anyways this chapter is the calm before the storm I just want to clear the air about Ino, because a lot of Ino fans are not pleased and I'm not pleased that they're not pleased and I'm a pleaser of the people dattebayo!**_

 _ **Anyways I hope you enjoy the chapter, read-review-favorite-text me- call me cus I don't have any friends…I'm just messing with y'all I'm a man of the people…...please enjoy the chapter.**_

 _-_ _ **ZEETREX22**_

 **DISCLAIMER:** Sasuke: zeetrex-sama doesn't own the dobe or the dobe's shippuden

Zeetrex22: THAT IS NOT TRUE!

Sasuke: oh yeah? Prove it then

*zeetrex22 pulls out his laptop and shows the teme his collection of Naruto from season one to the end*

Zeetrex22: well there you have it! it's all mine!

*sasuke stares at zeetrex-sama in worry*

Sasuke: You really don't have friends do you?

Zeetrex22: ._.

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Chapter 4: From Ramen with Love

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(Konoha Training Ground)

Kakashi Hatake stood over the writhing bodies of his students, they were marred with sweat and bruises due to the ' _light'_ workout they had just completed, he had his icha-icha-volume two series out as he read and giggled perversely "Akane-chan*giggle* use the whip *giggle*use the whip"

"could you cut that out sensei!" sakura shrieked from her position on the ground, a scarlet red blush on her face as she struggled to get up from the ground.

"mah-mah sakura, you shouldn't be so prude, you're sixteen" Kakashi waved her off as he carried on with his perverted literature.

" _prude?"_ she asked herself mentally, "I'm not prude Kakashi sensei! you're a pervert reading porn to a minor!" she yelled back, pointing an accusing finger at him as she finally managed to get on her feet shakily.

"old enough to kill old enough for porn" Kakashi shrugged non-chalantly, seemingly carried away with his book to bother with the greenness of his female student, but a trained eye could see it was all an act.

Sakura blushed an even brighter shade of red ( _if that was possible_ ), she spun around to look at her teammates to back her up but their nodding heads told her otherwise, she looked back at her sensei and sighed in defeat, "fine, read your smut but keep it to yourself" she stomped away to sit under the shade of one of the many trees in the training grounds

Kakashi wanted to tell his pink-haired student that she could learn a thing or two from the icha-icha series but he knew he would be poking the proverbial bear that was sakura's fury so he settled for an eye smile and a victory sign with his fingers.

"alright my cute little genins, we have five more minutes of break time before we begin sparring" Kakashi smiled, it wasn't the warm big-brotherly smile they were used to no it was a smile that promised pain and long-suffering.

The word spar was all Uchiha sasuke needed to hear to get back on his feet, he let an Uchiha esque smirk, "finally"

Menma was no different from his raven haired partner, he got to his feet, stretched out and prepared for the beat down that was to come.

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(Namikaze Residence)

The room of the Namikaze heir was in complete disarray, if one looked from afar they would think that a storm blew through and their guess wouldn't be very off, "where the hell did I put it, I had it on me a couple of days ago" he said to nobody in particular, he was currently searching frantically through a pile of clothes on his bed, "Yatta!" he cheered, he hopped down his bed waving a piece of paper in his hands while doing a happy dance, this was how iruka found him.

"should I be worried young master?" iruka asked in a deadpan as he walked into the room, Naruto turned around and saw his butler\bodyguard staring at him with a look that doubted his sanity, "I finally found it iruka-san" he pumped his fist in the air.

"and what exactly is it that you found?" iruka asked with a pensive look.

"my Ichiraku coupon!" he cheered again, "I got this when kaa-san and I traveled to some strange country and they told me if I could hold onto this for a year they would let me have free ramen for a day when they moved their business to our country!" he yelled excitedly.

iruka let out a small breath he was holding, "I'm guessing this Ichiraku that you speak of is in our city now?" the shinobi butler inquired.

"yeaah!" the blonde replied with a face-splitting grin, "that's where I'm headed right now!" the blonde raced off to grab his jacket.

Iruka stared wide-eyed at the mess that was his young charge's room " _I guess I'll deal with this at the moment"_ he mentally prepared himself, but before he could get to it Naruto shot back into the room with his jacket on and a blush on his face "don't worry about the mess iruka-san, I'll handle it when I get back" he gave a thumbs up and dashed down the stairs again in his quest for free, quality ramen.

Today was practically going to be the best day of his life, he could feel it, he was going to eat so much ramen that he wouldn't be able to think straight for weeks, he could already feel his ramen high coming along and nothing could bring him down, not even cousin Menma.

Naruto grabbed his keys and headed towards the main door of the mansion, he could taste the toppings already and was sure his taste buds were quivering with excitement. He opened the door hastily and almost ran into someone on the other side.

"sorry I didn't see you ther-" Naruto's brain function seemed come to a grinding stop as he saw who was on the other side. He would never forget that shade of platinum blonde hair or the unique pair of pale blue eyes that seemed to magnificently compliment the feminine beauty of Ino yamanaka.

"I-Ino?" he asked, not believing she was actually there.

Ino didn't miss the lack of the affectionate suffix he usually used on her but she smiled non the less and gave a friendly wave, "hi Naruto-kun, do you have a moment I was hoping we could talk" she looked down at her feet not able to look him in the eye properly.

"umm, sure, but I was heading out for some ramen, wanna come along?" he asked apprehensively, he hadn't forgotten how their last encounter went, and now that he thought about it he really hadn't had any time to dwell on his breakup with Ino, but then again with this whole shinobi thing going on and the secrets his dad seems to be keeping from him he wasn't really surprised.

"yeah, sure I would love to" she seemed a little happy that he would even consider going somewhere with her even if it was to a ramen bar.

"okay, right this way then" he closed the door and headed to the garage where he was parked, Ino followed him quietly she didn't know how to strike up a conversation with him, hell she didn't even know how she could tell him what had happened to her without revealing the fact that she was a chakra wielding shinobi of Konoha.

They got to the garage in a couple of seconds, the building was monstrously large with five floors, It kinda looked like a showroom for classy and modern cars, if she looked far enough she could see a couple of Harley Davidsons and some other bikes. Now this sight might have been overwhelming for a regular person but for Ino it was relatively normal because she had been coming to the Namikaze estate since she was five and her dad also had an automobile collection but it was by no means this large.

They stopped by a pitch black Porsche 911 speedster with dark-red accent colors and ruby red rims, Ino was expecting the usual orange Audi he usually drove and was quite surprised by his pick, aside from his undying love for ramen the one thing she knew Naruto had a flair for was the color orange, he would always find an excuse to wear the color but now that she looked at him she didn't notice a trace of the tang color on him.

"Naruto-kun what happened to your regular car?" Ino asked hoping it was a good place to strike up a conversation with her fellow blonde.

Naruto's reaction was classic; "nothing, I just felt like trying something new ya know?" he idly scratched the back of his head.

Although he said those words with a clear conscience and no hidden meanings Ino kind of read into it, " _trying new things?!"_ she mentally cringed at those words, but Naruto didn't seem to notice as he got into the car and revved its engine.

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(Konoha Training Grounds)

Sasuke and Menma stood back to back in the middle of the training ground, the spar with their sensei wasn't going according to plan at all, they were brutally attacked and beaten in the first few minutes of the spar and if not for sakura they wouldn't be standing right now.

They both watched out for the impending attack from their sensei, "see anything with those devil eyes of yours?" Menma asked his Uchiha teammate as he scanned his own section of the forest.

"Nothing yet, he might try attacking us with a Jutsu so stay on your toes" the Uchiha replied calmly

As though his words were heard by some divine being a pair of hands burst forth from underneath the ground aiming to grab both their legs, their training kicked in and both of them were able to get out of harm's way. Their sensei emerged fully from underground and rushed both his students, he swept menma's feet from underneath him but was pushed back by a round house that was aimed by his head courtesy of sasuke, Menma recovered quickly and charged with a left hook he blocked expertly and countered with an elbow smash to the outstretched limb, Menma saw this and pulled back his hand and fell back allowing sasuke to take point. Sasuke wasted no time in delivering a fast paced barrage of well-aimed kicks and punches that his Jounin sensei seemed to be moving through expertly, menma saw his teammates predicament and joined the fray once again, he and sasuke taijutsu combinations were enough to make Kakashi focus on the ongoing battle rather than reach for his icha-icha like he originally planned, a spin-kick from the Uchiha finally caught his chest and a sweep kick from the Namikaze put him to the ground, once Kakashi hit the floor he exploded in a burst of flames, the genin duo distanced themselves from the flames then tried scanning the area to see where their sensei might appear from.

" **water style: water dragon jutsu",** they both snapped their heads up to see their sensei forming a large dragon made out of water with glowing red eyes that seemed to be locked on them.

"sakura now!" sasuke shouted.

"SHANAROO!" the pink-haired girl roared as she leapt out of the surrounding forest and charged the aqua-dragon head on, her fist met the beast on its snout and smashed it into a harmless tidal wave that fell on the training ground.

"where did he go?" sakura asked out loud as she tried to find where their sensei had run off to.

before she could get an answer multiple copies of her sensei all rushed her with kunai in hand, she fought back her surprise and charged them taking them down brutally, but for every one she took down another two would spring back up.

"sakura it's a genjutsu" sasuke called from his side of the training ground, his Sharingan already picking apart the technique.

Sakura heard her teammates discovery and let out a huge burst of her chakra, all the copies of their Jounin sensei seemed to disappear after that.

"thanks sasuke-kun" she called out.

"hurry up and re-group" sasuke called back.

Menma's eyes narrowed in suspicion as sakura got closer to them "sasuke I-",

"I know" sasuke cut him off.

Sakura finally made it within arm's reach of their teammates "sasuke-kun, menma-kun, I think I-" anything else she was going to say was abruptly cut short as two kunai blades lodged deep inside her throat, releasing a spray of blood before she disappeared in a plume of smoke.

The real Kakashi appeared in front of them via a swirl of leaves, a tied up sakura was slung across his shoulders. "alright we're done here" he said placing a very pissed sakura on the ground.

"come on sensei you know we can keep going" menma argued and sasuke nodded in silent agreement.

"no you can't" Kakashi rebuked sternly, "you left your teammate behind to setup an ambush while the two of you draw me out, that kind of plan has a lot of downsides menma, if I were an enemy shinobi then sakura would be dead!" he said chidingly with a cold glare at his two students.

"but non the less good work, you two were able to hold your own against a clone of mine and defeat it in taijutsu and while also being able to spot out the fake sakura. And sakura you were able to prevent me from knocking you out while spotting the subtle genjutsu I tried to use on you, excellent work" Kakashi congratulated with his trademark eye smile.

The three genin accepted the praise with small smiles and if they were shocked by their sensei's instant change in attitude towards them they didn't show it.

"how did you figure out that it wasn't me who destroyed the water dragon?" sakura asked her teammates.

"well you usually yell out shanaroo a little longer" menma replied with a chuckle that made sakura turn a little red in the face. Menma was very attractive and any girl with a good pair of eyes could tell, he was like the yondaime come again, and she couldn't deny she felt a little something for the blue-eyed blonde.

"on a more serious note I don't believe sakura would fall for a genjutsu like that no matter how complex it might have seemed, she has the best control amongst us three" sasuke added analytically with a sagely nod.

Sakura's blush took on an even brighter shade of red, (it seems her face wasn't getting any rest today) both sasuke and menma had finally taken note of how she was growing as a kunoichi and it made her feel giddy.

"ano, it's only thanks to Tsunade-sama's training my control was able to get so good" she mumbled shyly.

"well team I'm pretty sure you three are ready to take the Chunin exams and at your current levels it should be a cake walk if you stay on your toes, but I must warn you that you three will have targets on your backs so it's best to proceed with caution when you're out there." Kakashi advised sagely.

"umm sensei? Why would we have targets on our backs? We're just genin" menma asked a little confused.

"well firstly sakura and sasuke are being trained by two of the legendary sanin and you are the apprentice to the yondaime Hokage and most importantly I'm your Jounin sensei, I've made quite the number of enemies and some of them might try to take it out on you" Kakashi shrugged, "watch your backs" he finished as he dipped his hands into his hip pouch to pull out the icha-icha and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Well I guess training is over for the day" the blonde genin declared as he sat down on the grass of the training ground.

Sasuke watched his blonde teammate with narrowed eyes, he didn't know that menma was now the hokage's apprentice he didn't even know when that happened, the hokage had a son for crying out-loud his legacy should be passed off to him and not some nephew of his. He really didn't know what to think of menma because menma was an all-round nice guy that seemed to always piss Naruto off the same way Itachi would piss him off but there was something else, on the battle field or on a mission menma's attitude did a complete 180, he was not the same laid back menma that he was and he could sometimes feel the bloodlust rolling off of him, he was cold, relentless and merciless, he would cut down anyone and anything in front of him for the sake of the mission and that was something the Uchiha could not agree with.

Sasuke went over to his duffel bag to gather up his gear and leave, he needed to go and work on his summoning alone and far from the others he didn't want Manda thinking they were sacrifices or anything of the sorts, he still hadn't been able to best Manda in combat so he couldn't call on him to aid him in battles without compensations which were usually the poor bodies of the enemy nins that he was fighting at that point in time. He was about heading out when sakura ran up to him.

"Sasuke-kun, menma-kun and I were thinking of heading over to the hokage's tower to see if we could get a mission, want to come along?" she asked excitedly, he could see she needed this, he could see she needed a confidence boost before the exams and a successful mission was a sure fire way of getting it.

"alright fine, I could use a mission right about now" he sighed tiredly, she heard his reply and her eyes lit-up like fireworks, even he couldn't deny that she looked exotic when her emerald green eyes lit up like that.

The three of them spent a few more minutes gathering they're gears and supplies before they headed over to the hokage's tower for a much needed mission.

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(Namikaze Industries)

Kushina Namikaze stared at the files that were scattered across her desk, she had been going over them for the past few weeks, looking through them to make sure they were no errors or miscalculations, that was why she was currently in her office with the two of the three legendary sanin, at least the ones that were still loyal to Konoha.

"this is really impressive work kushi, it's detailed and planned almost to perfection" a blonde female with a really large bust complimented.

" _almost to perfection?"_ she mentally cringed, she had been planning this for months and she could swear every wild card had been accounted for and dealt with severely, her calculations were clinical and accurate, her work was the very definition of perfection, but she pushed all of this to the back of her mind, "what seems to be the problem with the plan's design Tsunade?" Kushina asked her sister figure with a pointed look.

The busty blonde female now identified as Tsunade gave a coy smile as she looked at Kushina, ever since Kushina came to leave with her grandmother; Mito uzumaki when she was five years old she and Tsunade had become inseparable, they also developed a strong rivalry that didn't seem to waver even when Tsunade became a sanin, it always rubbed Kushina the wrong way when the Senju princess got one over her and this was no different.

Tsunade dropped the file back on the desk, "these plans are flawless kushi, but you forgot to take into account that the amount and nature of chakra we are going to be dealing with will need to be controlled somehow" Tsunade stated matter of factly.

"That's why we're making use of a neuro-chip and not a human being, the seals I and the sealing experts inscribed into that chip is capable of holding a Biju two times over" Kushina answered pointedly, she was getting edgy that her life's work was being questioned.

"I believe what hime(princess) is trying to say Is we need an active consciousness to guide and control the biju chakra, so it doesn't act out of control when it's sealed into the neuro-chip" the male figure on Tsunade's left intervened before things got out of hand.

His yellow snake like eyes stared into Kushina's, he wanted to make sure his point got across to her, Kushina on the other hand was in deep thought, if what she heard was right then she really did overlook a major drawback in her plan and that was the nature of the biju chakra itself, unlike that of a human a tailed beast chakra was alive because tailed beasts or biju where actually living chakra that where self-aware at least to some extent.

"I see what you mean" Kushina conceited, it was hard not to, the major aim of her plan was to separate the consciousness from a tailed beast chakra and harness the raw energy through chakra purification seals that she designed. But she now understood where the sanin where going with this, once the consciousness of a tailed beast was separated from its construct, the chakra left behind becomes wild and unstable, so unstable that it begins to shrivel out of existence until the tailed beast in question can regain its self-awareness once again and collect its chakra back through a process that lasts about three to four years. Kushina and her genius intellect had of course found a way to weaponize the wild chakra with the aid of her hi-tech inventions and god-like seal mastery but now what the sanin where trying to say was that she needed to create another consciousness into the central neuro-chip to avoid it going off like a bomb.

"I will need to create an artificial intelligence to man the neuro-chip" she said with eyes glazed over in deep thought, no doubt already coming up with designs for the AI.

Tsunade just smiled at her little pseudo sister with fondness "I knew you could do it kushi-chan, your genius still amazes me even after knowing you for over twenty years" Tsunade praised as she got up to leave.

Kushina shuddered at the word genius, she really didn't like that term being used on her, but she accepted the praise non the less "thanks Tsunade" she got up from her seat to see the slug sanin off.

She and Tsunade embraced each other in a warm sisterly hug that lasted for about twelve seconds before breaking apart with fond smiles on both their faces, "remember to come home for dinner tonight" Kushina called out as Tsunade walked out of the office.

A few seconds after the slug sanin had left, Orichimaru the snake sanin sat in his seat with a smug look on his face, Kushina turned to lock eyes with the snake sanin, "is there something else you would like to the discuss about the plan?" she asked in a business-like manner that might scare any lesser man but the snake sanin stared back unflinchingly, "well there is something I would like to discuss, but it's not about the project at hand, it's a little personal" the sanin replied with a haste flick of his forked tongue.

"personal?" Kushina looked a little confused at his statement, she didn't know she had personal business with the snake sanin, "would you care to explain?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"well it's simple really, I would like us to discuss Jiraya"

(New-Konoha city: Ichiraku Lane)

A black Porsche 911 speedster with red accent colors pulled over at the parking lot of the Ichiraku lane, Namikaze Naruto came out of the driver's seat with yamanaka Ino coming out of the passenger's seat to his right. They walked across the pavement to the two story building that had a neon sign with the words: 'ICHIRAKU' written on it boldly, the neon sign seemed to grab the attention of people who were passing by especially those who were seeing it for the first time.

Ino noticed most eyes were on she and Naruto as they waked by but she really didn't mind because it was nothing new but the faint whispers she heard from them was a whole different thing altogether.

" _omigosh they're back together!"_ a civilian girl said to a boy her age she was walking with.

" _well that's a shame, Naruto can do so much better" the boy_ replied haughtily.

" _you're just saying that because you have a thing for Naruto"_ she replied with a knowing smile.

" _my point exactly"_ he said with a straight face.

Ino recoiled from that particular conversation and focused the chakra in her ears to a different one.

" _hey did you hear he jumped of a helicopter for her_?" a girl a bit younger than Ino whispered to herfemale companion _._

" _yea I totally heard about that, that was sooo romantic, I wish a guy would do something like that for me"_ her companion said with a sad sigh.

" _yea but she still broke up with him"_ the first girl stated matter offactly

" _that can't be true, they're totally on a date right now"_ the companion disputed, the first girl justshrugged her shoulders and carried on _._

Ino looked at Naruto from her place beside him to see if he heard any of the comments that were being made by the people around him, if he did he didn't show it, he just kept on walking with an excited look on his face.

They finally made it to the entrance and they were ushered in and shown to a table by a waiter who was smartly dressed in a white suit shirt, a black waistcoat and a black bow-tie with black suit pants.

Naruto took notice of the perverse way the waiter was glancing at Ino with, but he chose to ignore it for now, he could deal with the pedo-waiter later and besides he and Ino weren't a thing anymore and she could handle herself.

"after you ma'am" Naruto said holding out a chair for Ino to take a sit.

"thank you Naruto-kun" she blushed as she sat down on the chair that was waiting on her.

Naruto could still notice the waiter's leer from his peripheral vision but he paid him no mind.

While Naruto settled into the chair opposite hers Ino took some time to study the inner workings of the restaurant, the first thing she noticed was that there was a mixed class of people present in the restaurant, the waiters where all smart looking and formal and the design of this floor was really exotic, it wasn't too elegant as too discourage people of lower classes and it also wasn't too laid back at the same time. On the far end of the floor she could spot an elevator and a flight of stairs leading up and her curiosity was instantly piqued, she wanted to know what was been served, how the place was designed, if it was similar or different, you know the basic stuff.

" _bad Ino!"_ she mentally chided herself, this wasn't the time to let her mind wander, she was here to make things right with Naruto, not study the intricate designs of the fine establishment.

"Yo Ino, you good?" her blonde ex asked from across the table.

She blushed at been caught deep in thought like that, it was shikamaru's thing not hers.

"I'm good Naruto-kun, I was just wondering what was up there" she pointed at the flight of stairs to emphasize her point.

Naruto gazed at the stairs intensely as he tried to decipher what went on up there, after a few seconds he gave up with an exasperated sigh, "I've got nothing" he shrugged.

Ino smiled at his antics and picked up the menu that was placed at their table, she missed his attitude and his strange approach to the unknown but she wasn't going to let herself get distracted, she came here for a reason.

"I think we should order something, before we start getting strange looks" she joked lightly.

"yeah you're probably right"

"I'm always right Naruto-kun"

"nuh-uh"

"name one time!"

"well there was that time you thought the teme was gay"

"come on Naruto we all thought he was gay when we first met him"

"we were in grade school Ino and you called him out on it in front of the whole school!"

"good times" she grinned cheerily at that particular memory.

Naruto was aghast by what he was witnessing, Ino yamanaka backed down from an argument, he stared at her with his mouth slightly hung open, it was like saying Shikamaru joined the school basketball team or Choji left a bag of chips unfinished or sasuke coming out of the closet and admitting his undying love for Sai.

Ino saw his stare and was a little flustered, "what is it? do I have something on my face?" she asked in horror, "is it my makeup? darn it, that's the last time I let mom talk me into trying out her experimental makeup" she groaned.

Now this was more like the Ino he knew, "relax Ino, there's nothing wrong with your face or makeup, I was just a little shocked you backed out of the argument that's all" he said with a grin.

"well someone has to be the bigger person" she replied coolly.

They were interrupted by the waiter who ushered them in when he approached their table, "what might I get you Madame?" he asked with a forced accent and a longing look.

Naruto quickly skimmed through the menu and glared evilly at the waiter "there's no ramen here!" he pointed at the foreign waiter in accusation" the waiter was taken by surprise at the outburst and had to take a step back to re-center himself, "we don't serve ramen here!" the waiter bit back sharply at the blue eyes that seemed to peer into his soul.

The waiter's reply was a trigger for Naruto, his voice lowered by a tone, his bangs casted a shadow over his cerulean eyes but a blue glow still managed to come out of the shadows, "I thought this was Ichiraku" he questioned in a tone that sent chills down the spines of those who heard him speak; namely the foreign waiter and Ino.

"y-yes sir this-s is-s the Ichiraku" the waiter stammered shakily, but we don't serve ramen here" his knees were beginning to buckle slightly.

Naruto rose out of his seat slowly, like a specter creeping out of the shadows, and that was all it took for the waiter to spill his guts, "we don't serve ramen here, but they're been served by the establishment on the upper floors" the waiter pointed to the flight of stairs he and Ino noticed earlier, with his bit said the waiter scurried off like his life hanged in the balance, while the other customers watched the waiter flee as though he had lost his mind.

Naruto turned back to Ino with a mega-watt grin on his face, "I can't believe that actually worked" he cheered as he helped her out of her sit.

"what was that Naruto-kun?" Ino warily asked still not very sure of what she just witnessed, for a moment she could've sworn that was legit killer intent, but that was something only high ranking and powerful shinobi were privy to, so why could she feel it coming off of him a few moments ago?

"oh that was nothing, it's just a trick I saw my kaa-san use to scare some people away during long and boring board meetings, she says it's all in the angle of your bangs" he shrugged laxly, "let's head up and have some ramen!" he pumped his fist quietly to avoid unnecessary attention from the other customers.

Ino quietly followed Naruto up the flight of stairs that supposedly led to ramen, she kept replaying that moment over and over in her head again, those cold empty blue eyes that seemed to want to devour her soul was going to haunt her dreams and she just knew it, but it still didn't explain how he was able to do that by watching someone else do it, or the fact that he didn't have chakra to aid him, but to be honest she wasn't really sure if one needed chakra to unleash killer intent and, that was something she would need to ask her sensei later on.

Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw the far-away look on Ino's face, "oi, you're spacing out on me again Ino, were almost at the top" Naruto chided with a tired sigh.

"sorry Naruto-kun, it's just that what you did back there was pretty scary, did your mom tell you how it's done or what it's for?" she asked prodding for a little information, if his mum actually told him what chakra was then the whole conversation she was planning on having with him was going to be a lot easier than she initially thought.

"well my kaa-san said it was a mystical power…" he started, and Ino's mind was about leaping for joy that his mum explained the concept of chakra to him.

"that was granted to us…."

" _yes, go on Naruto-kun"_ she mentally cheered.

"by the ramen gods, to make sure we up hold its sacred gospel and to punish the slanderous blasphemers that disputes its holy sacredness" Naruto concluded with an ominous bow to a ramen poster that was on the wall in front of him"

" _what the fuck?"_ Ino mentally cringed, this was not how she expected this to go.

"umm Naruto-kun why are you bowing to a ramen poster?" she asked noticing the stares customers were giving from the floor below.

"I'm thanking the supreme ramen overlord for giving me the ability to scare a grown man shitless with just a stare" he answered sagely as he returned to his upright position.

"now let's go get some!" he pumped his fist in the air.

" _wrong choice of words Naruto-kun, wrong choice of words"_ she sighed but followed him up the stairs nonetheless.

Two minutes later they were at the top of the stairs, they both let out short gasps of surprise as they walked in through the large red double door, they were both surprised by the design of this floor, unlike the previous floor this one was more lively, it had a bar feel to it, they were seats arranged in front of the counters to accommodate customers, pop music played through speakers somewhere they couldn't see and the people on this floor seemed more inviting than on the previous floor, you could tell by the way they talked and laughed boisterously with the chefs and waiters serving.

"wow" Naruto breathed out, the smell of boiling ramen permeated the air and filled his nostrils with the heavenly aroma and he could already feel his ramen high coming along.

Ino on the other hand gasped in shock of the movement and activities on this floor, she wouldn't say it out but she really preferred the previous floor to this one because it was classier and refined, whereas this one was more of a glorified bar than a restaurant. Naruto looked happy here though, she could bear it for a little while she hoped.

Naruto led Ino to a secluded spot far away from the rambunctious activities of the bar, the seats were still stools and were still placed in front of a counter but it was just a little quieter than the rest of the place. They were attended to by a waitress a few seconds after settling down, the waitress was around Ino's height or maybe taller, she had brown long hair that was packed into a ponytail chocolate-brown eyes to match, she wore an apron over a black long-sleeved t-shirt that was folded up to her wrists and a blue jean trouser that seemed to hug her form just fine. "hello, I am Ayame, what might I get you today?" she asked with a beautiful smile that could melt ice-bergs, at least that was what Naruto thought as he stared at her pearly white teeth.

"umm I'll have the veggie ramen please" Ino ordered as she scanned through the menu, oblivious to the trance Naruto was in.

Luckily Ino's order was all it took to snap Naruto out of his moment of brain-lag, he cleared his throat as he scanned through the menu in front of him "I'll have two bowls of miso and a side order of pork" he grinned back.

She wrote down their orders and left to get the food ready, Naruto looked back at the counter deep in thought, he could swear he had seen her somewhere before but he just couldn't place it.

"are you all right Naruto-kun" Ino asked as she noticed the look of deep concentration he had on his face.

"I'm fine, it's just that that smi- I mean waitress, that waitress looked familiar is all" he relaxed a bit as he gave up on trying to remember where he had seen her before.

Ino smiled at his sincerity, Naruto never kept anything from her or sasuke and it pained her that they both had to keep a major aspect of their lives a secret, speaking of secrets it was time she addressed the elephant in the room; their _breakup_.

She took a few seconds to gather her wits and words then she swiveled on her chair to face the blonde.

"Naruto-kun, I wanted to say I'm sorry" she stared at the counter, not able to meet his confused blue orbs.

"ehh?" was his intelligent reply, he couldn't understand why she was apologizing, she didn't do anything wrong.

"for the night of my birthday party" she continued slowly.

" _oooh"_ he mentally cringed, it was all coming back to him now, his pseudo halo jump, the pool, the breakup. He still really hadn't thought about it.

"yeah, I'm sorry I pushed you in the pool, I'm sorry I insulted Hinata, I'm sorry for breaking up what we had for the last two years, and I'm sorry for being an all-round pain" she sighed, apologizing to him was a lot harder than she thought it would be, she had previously gone to apologize to all her friends in person and none of it was as hard as what she was facing right now and she hadn't even gotten to the hard part yet, but maybe he would just accept the apology and forgo the deets.

Naruto felt bad that Ino taught she needed to apologize to him, "it's okay Ino, sometimes we get frustrated, and we lose our cool, it happens to everyone" he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

She was already starting to tear-up, why did he have to be so friggin understanding, well she was sure her next tidbit of information might be a stunner.

"that's not all Naruto, while we were still dating I went out a few times with some other guys" she said quietly and hoped he wouldn't hate her for it.

Naruto looked at Ino with all the loving kindness one could muster and told her: "I know about those Ino-chan".

Ino froze at his words, he knew? he knew and didn't say anything about it? "bull!" she bit back.

"what?" he asked puzzled.

"I call bullshit Naruto!" she stared at him with tears streaming from her eyes, "there's no way you'd have known" he couldn't have known, he never treated her differently so there was no way on Kami's green earth he'd have known.

Naruto chuckled at her response, "the first one was shin, you and him went to that coffee place on the ninth the first time, then there was Juri, you and him went to see the third installment of princess gale together and there was that one time you and Sai went to Disney land together but I don't think that one counts cus he admitted he was gay at the end of the day." Naruto finished with a simple shrug.

Ino pulled back from him abruptly, she stared at him with wide disbelieving eyes, "N-Naruto-kun, you did know! but why didn't you ever say anything? why did you go on like nothing happened?" she was crying freely now, she didn't care if the other customers saw her like that, it didn't matter now

Naruto stood up and closed the distance between them, he took her hands in his, "Ino I didn't say anything because there was nothing to say, every time I saw you with those guys I died a little inside but deep down I felt it was my fault, I felt if I had treated you a little better then all of that wouldn't have happened, so I sucked it up and tried to do better by you" he finished with a sad smile.

Ino now realized that she didn't deserve half a fraction of what Naruto felt for her and it was a terrible feeling it left in her gut.

"and I guess I still wasn't able to get it right because in spite of it all we ended up like this" he continued with a solemn look, "I didn't bother asking for another chance because I felt that I didn't deserve it, I mean what sane person would blow four chances with the girl of his dreams?" he chuckled bitterly.

Ino's breath was caught in her throat, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, Naruto thought it was his fault the entire time?

"Naruto-kun, all of that was not your fault, you were the best boyfriend a girl could ask for, if any one was in the wrong it was me, I st-" she was interrupted by the pretty waitress arriving with their food in a tray, "your orders are rea-" she stopped herself as she saw her customers were no longer seated, they were both standing and the blonde girl was in tears, "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting…umm I could come back?" she asked a little confused.

"no it's fine Ayame-san, we were just about taking our seats" Naruto clarified

Ino was stunned, not at Naruto or the waitress, but at herself because she was about telling Naruto the truth! " _get a hang of yourself Ino, you're a kunoichi, don't let your emotions get the best of you damnit!"_ she rebuked herself mentally for the near slip up.

"uhh, Naruto-kun I need to clean up in the lady's room, I'll be right back" she said as she briskly walked towards where she hoped the ladies room would be.

Luckily for Ino she had a good sense of direction and she found the lady's room in record time, she approached the sink and threw up what was left of her breakfast, her vision was starting to darken and she knew what it meant. She reached into the back of her pants pocket and pulled out a seal, she performed three hand signs and then proceeded to slap the seal tag on her right bicep, the seal tag glowed a radiant purple and the kanji for 'Suppression' appeared on it.

Ino's legs gave out underneath her and she feel to her knees, she dry heaved and hyper-ventilated as she tried to adjust to the foreign chakra that now flowed through her body, she remembered her dad telling her that she this would help until a more permanent solution was found but this hurt like hell and she wasn't even sure she was going to be willing to try this again.

{FLASHBACK: _Last Night}_

 _Ino lay down on the couch in her father's office, she was nervously waiting for the result of the tests her dad had run on her mind, she prayed silently that whatever she had done to herself wasn't permanent, she couldn't stand the arguing voices anymore, she didn't like her body being hijacked by some parallel personality of hers and she couldn't stand the fact that she was hurting her friends and Naruto, deep down she wanted to kill herself so all this would end but she wasn't sure if this was her thought or one of the other voices._

 _Her father came back into the room with a clipboard in hand, he seemed like he was trying and failing to decipher something on the clipboard, "what's the verdict dad?" she sulkily inquired_

 _Inoichi yamanaka sighed in frustration as he went through his daughter's mind scan, the results weren't adding up, he was snapped out of his musings by his daughter's voice, "Ino, according to these results you should have died six times over already" the mind walker calmly explained to his little girl._

" _whaaaaatt!" she didn't take it so well._

" _h-how? Why?" she asked already tearing up._

" _well you see the human mind is a very complicated subject but we do understand that it shouldn't have more than one dominant consciousness, but whatever that jutsu did to you has caused an anomaly of six other consciousness to appear within your psyche and they're all fighting for dominance as we speak" Inoichi concluded with a tired sigh._

" _daddy what's going to happen to me?" Ino cried._

" _I'm not sure yet ino-chan, but I promise I won't let you die, I'll talk Tsunade-sama and her teammate tomorrow to see what we can come up with, but in the mean time I'll give you some suppression tags to use keep the other consciousness' away" he walked over to the couch and engulfed his crying daughter in a comforting hug._

" _t-thanks daddy, I'm really sorry for all the trouble" she sobbed into his chest._

" _it's all right ino-chan, but be careful don't make use of those tags more than thrice a day, it could actually destroy your psyche okay?"_

 _{FLASHBACK END}_

Ino sighed in relief as she felt the foreign chakra disperse with its work done, this was her second tag today and she felt like utter crap, it turns out the seal tags her dad gave her couldn't really stop the voices it was just a measure she had to resort to when one of the other consciousness' where trying to snatch her body.

Ino got to her feet with gusto, she needed to get back to Naruto before he got worried and came looking for her, she was about re-applying her makeup when she froze, the reflection gazing back at her through the bathroom mirror wasn't quite hers, it did look like her yet it wasn't hers. The reflection looked older and had longer hair than Ino, there was a snarl on her face that looked like it didn't belong there,

"let me out right now!" she growled

"u-uh who are you?" Ino asked a little freaked out by what was going on.

"I'm Santa fucking Claus you dumb bitch now let me OUT!" she roared in defiance.

Ino stumbled backwards away from the mirror in shock, one of the consciousness appeared to her! And a few seconds after using the seal tags, this was bad, this was very bad, she needed to get to her father's office ASAP!

Her attention was drawn by a loud scream from the mirror, the parallel reflection she was previously interacting with seemed to be in a losing battle with a something else, she couldn't make out much from the mirror due to its size and shape but a few seconds later the struggling seemed to subside, she inched closer to the mirror to see what was happening, she got to about a foot's distance from the mirror when a hand shot out of it and grabbed her by the neck.

"why hello there, jailer!" a mock cheery voice rang out of the mirror as it tightened its hold on the blonde's neck.

Ino was petrified right now, it was one thing for her to see her own parallel reflection but it was another thing entirely to be assaulted by one.

A different Ino's face emerged out of the mirror, she had blonde and black hair, a pale white skin and piercing on her nose, a tattoo on her neck that seemed to trail down to her body but she couldn't tell, her eyes were outlined with black mascara and her eyelids were shadowed in a shade of thick purple.

She let out face-splitting grin when she came face to face with Ino, "ino-chan, you look so much prettier in person" she cackled with insanity and unrefined bloodlust.

She pulled her other hand free from the mirror and caressed Ino's face gently, "and to think this body will all soon be mine, mmhmm, I can't wait!" she let go of Ino's face and began to run through one handed seals.

The captive Ino saw this and her shinobi instincts kicked in, she dipped her hands into her back pocket on reflex, but instead of pulling out a kunai as usual she pulled out the suppression seal, she quickly slapped one on to the mirror Ino's wrist. The reaction was instantaneous, mirror Ino let go of her captive to try and pry the seal off her hands. The captive Ino barrel rolled to her right flank and activated the seal, the mirror Ino screamed in pain as her limbs were engulfed in a purple flame that crawled all over her body, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

Ino tried to calm herself down and regain her breath, now that her mirror halve was gone she could think more clearly now, she whipped out her phone to get a hold of her dad, only he would know what to do now.

[New Konoha City; Ichiraku Lane; Ichiraku Ramen; Top floor]

Naruto sighed as he finished his fourth bowl of ramen, he was starting to worry about Ino and her ramen was getting cold. He wondered if it was something he said that set Ino off, well there wasn't much he could do right now but wait and hope she comes out soon.

The pretty waitress from earlier swung by, "would you like another bowl?" she offered with a kind smile, that Naruto couldn't help but get lost in.

"u-uuh, yeaah, an extra-large bowl of chicken ramen please" he smiled back at the pretty waitress.

"coming right up!" Ayame disappeared behind the counter to get working on his order.

Naruto watched the waitress leave, he still felt he knew her somehow but he couldn't quite place his where. He pushed that line of thought to the back of his mind and pulled out his phone.

{Ramen-Overlord}: yo teme! You there?

….

….

{Ramen-Overlord}: come on teme I know you're there!

…

…

{Ramen-Overlord}: I can sense your uptightness all the way from here.

…

…

{Ramen-Overlord}: come on teme! Speak to me!

(Konoha: Hokage's Office)

Team 7 bar their Jounin leader Hatake Kakashi stood in front of the Hokage as they got their mission briefing.

"you three will be doing a cleanup mission, your Jounin sensei and the Anbu division apprehended a crime boss popularly known as gatou we had Ibiki from torture and interrogation speak to him and we were able to discover that he had a platoon of missing-nin at his command whom are tasked with ongoing jobs around new Konoha-city, your mission is to annihilate the current squad after your client" the hokage handed sasuke a scroll with the mission details inside.

Sasuke accepted the scroll and looked it over for a couple of seconds he then proceeded to unseal the picture of the client from the storage section of the scroll, he froze at the picture of the client; sun-kissed blonde hair, cerulean blue eyes and a face stretching grin, it was Naruto Namikaze, the client was Naruto Namikaze.

"hokage-sama, do you mind if I ask who requested this mission?" sasuke tried to ask calmly.

Minato looked at the face of the shocked genin in front of him, he let a mysterious smile play on his face, "that would be me" the hokage replied not missing a beat.

"I requested you three because you're his friends, if I had sent anybody else to guard him he would have gotten suspicious" the hokage stated matter of factly.

"what about Iruka? Surely he would be able to handle a bunch of missing-nin" Menma inquired, he wasn't giddy at the fact that he was going to be babysitting his fellow blonde.

"Iruka can only guard Naruto while he is in the Namikaze estate, Naruto isn't supposed to know that iruka shadows him" the hokage was getting tired of the questions.

"anything else?" he asked with a tone of finality, there was a few moments of silence and no one spoke, minato was about asking them to leave when a hand was raised in the air, the limb belonged to Haruno Sakura Tsunade's apprentice, "excuse me hokage-sama, but I have a question" sakura squared her shoulders.

Minato's nod of approval was the go ahead she needed, "why wasn't Naruto-kun allowed to become a shinobi like the rest of us?"

Now if the room was quiet before it became deathly silent now, it was as if the Shinigami was taking a stroll in the hokage's office. Sakura looked down at her feet unsure what the hokage's reaction was, now that she thought about it menma and Sasuke's questions where pushing the line of insubordination but hers was an outright slap to the blonde kage's face.

Minato stared at the team that his son would have been a part of he was a shinobi and a sad smile graced his lips, "sakura, that information is above your paygrade, you can ask me again after you make Chunin" he finished with a fatherly smile.

Sakura was in a bit of shock, she could have sworn she was going to get a tongue lashing from her blonde leader, it was times like this she really appreciated who their kage was, if it where someone else she and her team would have been getting acquainted with the Anbu holding cells.

"that will be all hokage-sama" sasuke wrapped up before his teammates could do anything else to piss-off one of the most powerful men alive.

The rest of team 7 followed Sasuke's lead and gave a bow to the hokage and left his office to prepare for their mission.

[New Konoha City; Ichiraku Lane; Ichiraku Ramen; Top floor]

Naruto had just finished up his sixth bowl of ramen when Ino came back from the lady's room, she sat down and signaled to the waitress, "can I get this to go?" she pointed to her cold vegetable ramen.

"you're leaving?" Naruto asked a little down that he didn't get to enjoy his ramen with her.

"I'm sorry but I have to go Naruto-kun I have some things I need to do" she lied smoothly.

"but you were just about telling me what was up with you" he frowned a bit.

Ayame handed Ino the take-away ramen pack, "thanks for dinning at ichiraku's" the waitress smiled politely.

Ino grabbed the bag and got up to leave but Naruto's hand gently held her in place, "talk to me Ino, if you've got a problem you can tell me, I can help" he said gently, bringing his voice down so they weren't overheard.

"I appreciate you always trying to be there for me Naruto but this is something you won't understand" she tugged her hand free from his grasp and made her way down the stairs.

"well that sucked" Ayame commented from her place behind the counter drying the dishes.

Naruto turned to face her with a deadpan look, "you think?" he sat back down on his stool deep in thought, " _all of a sudden it's like everybody has something they can't tell me, mum, dad, sasuke, now Ino too"_

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the waiter repeatedly calling his name, "wh-what is it?"

"well my shift's about to end and I was wondering if you would be paying in cash or with a card?" she handed him the bill.

He dug his hand's into his pocket seemingly searching for something, "here you go" he handed her his Ichiraku coupon.

"where did you get this?" her eyes widened in shock, "these were handed out to only a few set of people" she stared at the silver coupon with shock.

"um, some guy handed it to me a couple of years back in some foreign country, can't really remember where though" he scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh.

"Tou-san, oka-chan, come quick! Uzumaki-san has returned" she squealed in joy.

"Uzumaki?" the blonde questioned in confusion.

XXX0OX0X0X0X00XX0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X00X0X0X0X00X00X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0XX0X0X0X0

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** _ **And that's a wrap folks! Let me know what you think and how feel, review, favorite, hit the like button (if there's one), pm me let me know how I can grow this brain-fart of mine.**_

 _ **A quick shout-out to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to everyone planning on reviewing this one. I'm gonna do something nice for you guys cus it's the Christmas season and I'm feeling generous, I'm going to include the first five reviewers for this chapter in the next! Not just A shout-out with your screenname but I'm gonna make actual characters outta Y'all just lemme know what your gender is and any other specifics you think I might need. Remember this will be for the first five!**_

 _ **Back to the story in general; Ino is not a hoe, Naruto is still oblivious, minato seems indifferent, menma looks like a nice guy and sakura is still confused…...**_

 _ **What about shino, Kiba and Choji? Will they make their debuts next chapter? Find out on NINJA: chapter5: The battle for New Konoha City!**_

 _ **PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 5**_ _ **: Naruto gasped for breath as he swam ashore, everywhere was littered with dead bodies, the metallic stench of blood filled the air and it made him a little queasy, "deep breaths Naruto, don't freak-out, don't freak out" the blonde tried to calm himself.**_

" _ **Head, jugular, spine, lungs, liver, I wonder which one I'll go for" an ice cold voice whispered from directly behind him.**_

 _ **-**_ _ **ZEETREX22**_


	5. Chapter 5: Battle For New Konoha City

**Author's Note:**

Happy new year to all of you lovers of fanfiction and my fellow otaku! I hope the New Year is treating y'all good? Here is my latest update on my story, yes I know it's long overdue but I can promise you it's worth the wait, my Christmas to New Year transition was a little shaky, my laptop crashed I had to move out of former place and all this caused me to put a pause on a lot of things and blah-blah-blaah! I won't bore you with the details so on with the story!

 **-** _ **ZEETREX22**_

.

 **Disclaimer:** we all know everyone is saying I don't own the Naruto series…but that is about to change *cue evil laughter*

*Hinata walks in with a deadpan stare* "you're being creepy again zeetrex-san"

Zeetrex22…_.

 **Chapter 5: The Battle for New Konoha City**

"Uzumaki?" Naruto asked as he stared at Ayame's parents a little confused, "that's my kaa-chan's maiden name, how do you know that?" he asked Ayame's father.

"well a couple of years ago your mother came with you on a business trip to our town in the old country, you both came under the alias 'Uzumaki' and I gave you that coupon as a parting gift" Ayame's father Teuchi finished with a dramatic gesture towards the ramen coupon.

"We never thought we'd see you up close again, you're all grown up and handsome" Ayame's mother Asami added as she pinched the blonde's cheeks.

Naruto fought back a large blush as he politely escaped Asami's clutches, he straightened out his clothes and stared at the ichiraku coupon once again, now that he thought about it he couldn't really remember the full story behind it, he only remembered the vague details but not really the important specs.

"Oh! I know what might help" Teuchi cheered as he disappeared behind the counter in search for something that could ease the blonde's nerves

While all this was taking place Ayame stood off to the side staring at the blonde as though he were a gift from kami.

 _ **(Flashback: Ten years ago)**_

 _A six year old Ayame could be seen wandering through a mild forest, she had her brown hair tied into twin pigtails, her amber eyes glistened with mirth as she approached a large oak tree with a face splitting grin. "Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun! Come out come out where ever you are!" she called out in a sing-song tone, "you can run but you can't hide!"_

 _Unknown to the brunette, high up in the oak tree a red haired, blued eyed boy clung to one of the branches high up in the trees, his forest green t-shirt blended perfectly with the oak leaves camouflaging him from the unsuspecting eye. "A little bit closer aya-chan" the red-head whispered to himself._

 _As soon as little Ayame stood directly underneath the red-head's tree branch, he let go of the supporting branch, freefalling to the ground behind her, "BOO!" he yelled as he touched down._

 _Now ayame was a big girl and didn't frighten easily at least that's what she liked to think, but the alarming sound of a body free falling from such a height and the yell that accompanied it proved too much for the ten year old to handle, so she did what any girl her age would; "Eeeeeekkkkk!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, falling down to her knees as her young adolescent legs failed her._

 _ **(Flashback end)**_

Ayame stared across the room to where he mother was doting on the blonde customer, her eyes roamed every inch of his face trying and failing to put her doubting mind at ease, "n-no way, it can't be him I totally made a mistake, this poser can't be the naruto-kun I know" she shook her head frantically in denial, "he doesn't even remember me and besides he had red hair, and his eyes…." She stared into his cerulean pools and as though sensing he was being watched locked gazes with her, they both held each other's gaze for a few seconds and in that short time a memory long forgotten to the blonde threatened to resurface.

The moment was interrupted as Teuchi reappeared with a photo in hand, "Hahaha! I've found it!" Teuchi cheered, "Come here Naruto my boy" he exclaimed loudly as he reached for the blonde, pulling him within arm's length so he could see the photo the ramen chef had in his hands.

The photo was one of Teuchi a little bit younger carrying a red-head six year old Naruto on his shoulders who had a bowl of ramen in one hand and a pair chopsticks in the other, he had billion dollar grin on his face it was clear it was his first time having ramen, Asami could be seen holding a pouting ayame next to Teuchi while a blonde Kushina gave a large victory sign behind the couple.

"Is that me?" the blonde asked in disbelief.

"Of course my boy! You were head over heels in love with my ramen" the chef grinned proudly.

"How long ago was this Teuchi-san?" the blonde asked in awe.

"About ten years ago I think" the chef replied with a hand on his chin in thought.

"ayame-chan, come over here" her mother waved her over, "it's Uzumaki-kun!"

The brunette stared at her mother disbelievingly and then in fierce defiance, "No! there's no way that's the Naruto-kun I knew!" she glared at the blonde in raging fury while he stared back in confusion, "you stay the fuck away from me!" she yelled and stormed down the stairs to the lower floors, if one looked closely they could see the unshed tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

"Uhh did I say something wrong Asami-san?" Naruto asked the fleeing brunette's mother in confusion, the whole evening had been an insane rollercoaster ride, first Ino comes over and agrees to have ramen with him, then she just ups and leaves out of the blue, then there's the really cute waitress that he couldn't help but stare at and now her parents come out of the blue saying they've totally met before.

"Not at all Naruto-kun, you and ayame grew quite close the few days you spent in our town, I guess she's just a little miffed that you don't remember her at all" Asami said to the blonde soothingly.

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously, "I-I'm really sorry about all of this Asami-san, Teuchi-san, but I should get going now" the blonde nervously chuckled as he looked at the time on his wristwatch.

"There's no need to apologize Naruto, you made this old man's day by showing up!" Teuchi laughed boisterously as he gave the blonde a one sided hug.

"Teuchi is right Naruto-kun, there's no need to apologize, in fact we should be apologizing for ambushing you like this, no use crying over spilt-milk, here have this to go, and tell kushi-chan to come visit us when she has the time" Asami smiled as she handed him two packs of the ichiraku ramen to go.

"Thank you Asami-san and Teuchi-san for everything" the blonde bowed deeply as he took his leave.

"Don't be a stranger! And remember your coupon still has three free meals in it!" called out waving as the blonde descended down the stairs.

"Naruto-kun sure grew up to be a handsome gentleman" Asami smiled

Teuchi grinned as he placed a hand on his wife's shoulders, "he sure did, and I'm so glad his back to his blonde ways, he looks so much more like yondaime-sama.

 **[Parking Lot]**

Naruto smiled to himself as he made his way out the two-story ichiraku building, the old couple were really nice to him, it just sucked he couldn't remember them or their cute daughter, he'd definitely ask his mom about them when he got back to the Namikaze estate, "kaa-chan would definitely remember them" he smiled once again.

The Namikaze heir was about ten seconds from his car when a hand firmly gripped his bicep and spun him around, he was shocked when he came face to face with a teary-eyed ayame.

"Umm hi?" he asked unintelligently as he re-balanced the packs of ramen to avoid spillage.

She scoffed and shook her head at him.

"Uhh I'm sorry about tonight, I didn't mean to upset you or your parents' ayame-san" the blonde quickly recovered.

"it's fine, but I should really apologize for yelling at you and also swearing, I really don't know what came over me, I'm not usually like that" she blushed a little as she let go of his arm.

"heh-heh I guess we should call it even then" the blonde grinned a little causing Ayame's blush to brighten a tad-bit.

"I'm sorry for bringing this up again but I really need to know if you're the Naruto from that photograph" she pleaded gently.

The blonde's grin faded into a semi-serious look of pondering, "Although I can't recall much I know for a fact that it was my kaa-chan and I in that picture, so yeah I guess it was me" he finished with a nod, a gentle smile returning to his mug.

Ayame stared at him with wide eyes in disbelief, "but your hair and your mom's hair where totally colored different?" she tried to dispute.

"Oh that? We do that all the time when we travel, it helps keep the paparazzi and my dad's adoring fans away" he chuckled.

"Minato Namikaze right?"

"Huh"

"Your dad, he's Minato Namikaze right?

"Yeaah, totally"

"That is so cool! I'm a huge fan of his work" she squealed.

" _Oh gimme a break"_ the blonde mentally groaned.

"He's not that big of a deal" the blonde shrugged off the brunette's praise for his father with a casual wave of his hands.

"Yes he is! Who becomes one of the world's leading engineers at age sixteen? Or builds up a multi-million dollar company before age twenty? I'll tell you who, Minato Namikaze! That's who!" ayame finished with a huff.

Their conversation was interrupted by the blonde's phone ringing, he rummaged his jacket pocket for the offending device until he finally found it, "excuse me ayame-chan I have to take this" the young Namikaze excused himself.

Naruto turned around to garner a sense of privacy, "Yo Kiba how the hell have you been man?" the blonde hollered

"Not every one of us has your insane stamina Naruto, we normal folk can only take so much excitement" the dog tamer bit back snappily.

"Yes Kiba go ahead and blame my awesomeness on my genes, what's up man?" the blonde sighed tiredly.

"Coach asked me to get the team together, we need to get some practice in for the game against Iwa-high next Tuesday"

"Oh darn! I totally forgot about the pre-seasons" the blonde pulled his hair in horror.

Meanwhile ayame stared at the blonde's back as he conversed with his friend, she realized that the Naruto Uzumaki she knew and the Naruto Namikaze in front of her where one and the same, now if only he could remember her then this reunion would be just as she had always hoped it would turn out...

She was snapped out of her musings when the blonde spun back on his heels facing her now.

"It's all right Kiba tell Gai-sensei I'll show up bright and early for practice tomorrow" and with that the blonde dropped the call and offered his undivided attention to the awaiting brunette.

"Sorry ayame-chan I had to take that" he rubbed the back of his head shyly.

She took a step closing the distance between the both of them, "pre-seasons huh?" she inquired with a teasing smirk.

"Uhh yeah..." the blonde trailed clearly not used to his personal space being invaded like this.

"Can I come and watch?" she asked as sweetly as she possibly could.

The blonde took a shaky step back trying to create a little distance between the two of them, "ayame-chan the game isn't till next Tuesday, tomorrow is just team practice" he tried to dissuade the ichiraku spawn.

"Ouuu! Even better! I get to see the closed door practice of the reigning champs Konoha high!" she cheered loudly.

"I-I don't know ayame-chan, the practice for the pre-seasons are pretty top-secret, we don't want our opponents getting wind of our gameplay" the blonde shrugged.

"Come on Naruto-kun do I look like a spy to you?" she stepped closer again, their bodies being only inches apart, "besides, this could be a chance for us catch up and you might just remember me" she finished with a bright smile that put the struggling street lights in the area to shame.

"All right fine" the blonde sighed in defeat as he massaged his temples, "you're something else you know? One moment you're all sad and emo-ey like the teme and next you're cheery and energetic, girls are so confusing" the blonde slouched in defeat.

Ayame gave a victory sign at the blonde's defeated form, "well I'll meet you at the school gates by eight tomorrow Naruto-kun" she called over her shoulders as she walked back to her family's establishment with a spring in her step.

She knew she could get the blonde to remember her, she needed to show him how much she had grown, now all she needed was some time, a little patience and a large oak tree.

Naruto stared at Ayame's retreating form with a large sweat drop forming behind his head, "she didn't even say goodbye"

The blonde got into his car, shook his head clear of the cobwebs, strapped his ramen into the passenger sit on his right and began his journey home.

 **{Konohagakure: Council Room}**

The fourth hokage sat with his fingers inter-locked in front of his face, a blank look present on his features, his veteran blue eyes were fixed on the individuals In front of him as they awaited his response. In front of him where the village's elders and major clan heads who oversaw the inner workings of Konohagakure and its civilian counterpart; 'New Konoha city'.

They were gathered here today to discuss Hatake Kakashi's latest mission report, according to the Anbu captain Konoha will be attacked on two sides by two different parties, and that was the first of their seemingly growing problems because according to Ibiki from torture and interrogation Gatou's men where loose on the streets of new-Konoha city and were likely to strike any time soon.

Back to the first issue on ground, Konoha was being scouted on the northern border by a rival village Iwa, and a group of S-rank missing-nin had encamped along the southern border. The two individual parties where no doubt bidding their time to attack, leaving the opening move to their prey 'Konoha'.

"Hokage-sama, what do you propose we do?" one of the council elders asked with a voice laced with panic, the unreadable expression on the leader's face did nothing to calm his slowly waning nerves, "hokage-sama!" he raised his voice a little higher to grab his blonde leader's attention, "W-we have to come up with a plan of action immediately!" he finished with a show of mock bravado as he rose out of his seat

The hokage's ice-blue orbs locked on to the agitated council elder and no sooner than a second later the vocal elder was seated once again with beads of sweat rolling down his temples.

"Shikaku" the blonde hokage called out the Nara clan head, "how long would it take Iwa to march an army to our gates?" Minato asked with his eyes now glazed over in thought.

"I believe it would take about a week before they reach the mainland and about another two days to reach Konoha" the Nara clan head answered without missing a beat, "but if I may hokage-sama, I believe I have a theory" the pineapple haired genius finished.

"Go ahead Shikaku-san" the hokage prompted with a wave.

"Correct me if I'm wrong hokage-sama but Iwa and Konoha are allied under a peace treaty yes?" the shadow user asked.

"Yes we are, but you know these things are superficial at best" the hokage clarified.

"yes I'm aware of that hokage-sama and that brings me to the next point, I believe no matter how power hungry the Tsuchikage gets or how bent on vengeance he might seem, he's still an intelligent war veteran. That's why I don't believe the Tsuchikage would strike with a large force and neither will he make the first move, the Tsuchikage is knowledgeable enough to know that even if his attack were to fall Konoha the other hidden villages will be out to get him, but if we on the other hand were to draw first blood the Tsuchikage would be well within his right to attack us and might even get the backing of the other hidden villages to eliminate Konoha once and for all." Shikaku finished with a pointed look aimed at the hokage

"And what made you come to that conclusion?" a different elder interrupted with a snarl, his single visible eye locked on shikaku's form, this man was popularly known as the 'The old war-hawk of Konoha' AKA Danzo Shimura, one of the students of the Nidame Hokage and former candidate for the post of sandaime hokage. "Shikaku-san we are in no position to make assumptions, Konoha should strike now and put an end to Iwagakure once and for all, what we need is a small group of seasoned Anbu to take them out in a single strike" Danzo glared at the shadow caster with his one visible eye.

Minato watched the exchange between Shikaku and Danzo idly, he knew Danzo was a war monger who wanted Konoha to be the supreme ruling force of the shinobi world, while Shikaku on the other was one of the village's brightest minds and strategist who only wanted the best for Konoha with little to no bloodshed involved.

"Well Shikaku-san Danzo does make a valid point, why shouldn't we take our enemies unaware besides the trivial reasoning that the other nations might revolt, I mean we are shinobi, assassinations and hostile take-overs are what we do best" Minato smiled with a care-free shrug.

Shikaku smirked back at the hokage as he figured out the angle the blonde was working. It was no secret that Shimura Danzo and Namikaze Minato didn't hold much love between each other and they always tried to one-up the other at every chance they got and this was no different.

"well hokage-sama I believe the actions recommended by Danzo-san are exactly what the enemies at the southern borders are expecting, this is simply because while Konoha responds to Iwa's invasion force with one of her own the village is left understaffed leaving the missing-nin group to have their way with Konoha. Even if we were to split up our forces evenly it would do little to no good because Konoha might be hailed as the most powerful hidden village but we honestly do not have the forces to face the might of Iwa and a group of S-ranked missing-nin at the same time on two different battle grounds. And who's to say there isn't a third party lying in wait for us to make that mistake" Shikaku finished with a coy look that didn't seem to fly over Danzo.

The fourth hokage nodded in agreement to shikaku's words, but he was beaten to a reply as Danzo spoke up once again.

"Even if the Nara's assessment is right it doesn't change the fact that a solution has not been proffered" Danzo spewed sternly.

"I believe that's where I come in" the fourth hokage stood up as he walked to the middle of the council room, "Teams of Genin will be sent into new-Konoha city to keep the peace in case Gatou's men try anything while a handful of Chunin will be sent in as support and a three-man team of Jounin will join them to oversee the joint operation, Gatou's men will be undoubtedly low-life bandits and some missing-nin so it shouldn't be much trouble." The hokage took a few steps and stopped in front of Danzo.

"Regarding the northern border, we will send a recon team to cross the border and give us an exact figure of the enemy's numbers, while eighty percent of our Jounin force and a sixty-percent of our Chunin force backed by Anbu assault teams will lie in wait to counter Iwa's numbers. While the rest of the Chunin and Jounin with what's left of the Anbu will run logistics around the village and hold down the fort." Minato finished with a sigh as he turned on his heels and made his way back to his desk.

"Hokage-sama aren't you forgetting about the missing-nin at the southern border?" Danzo asked stoically, although he tried not to show it he was impressed with the fourth's plan.

Minato paused in mid stride as he allowed a heavy silence to fall over the entire council room, "you don't have to worry about the missing-nin at the southern borders, I'll tend to them personally" he gave his trademark care-free smile as he made himself comfortable in his seat once more. "Are we all in agreement with this?" the fourth asked, not really out of necessity but out of courtesy because he was hokage and he had the final say on these kind of matters.

The slow nodding of heads and lack of murmuring where all the signs Minato needed to be assured the council was on board with the plan, "well ladies and gentlemen if that will be all I believe I have some mission drafting to do so let us re-converge at the end of this week to look over the team deployment" he concluded the meeting as he rose out of his seat and headed back to his office to begin his drafting.

(Near The Southern Border Of Konoha)

It was three hours past sundown, a small group of people gathered around a campfire as they discussed their next course of action, they all wore matching black cloaks with a red cloud insignia on it and all their different headbands had horizontal gashes across the center indicating defection from their respective villages.

"I believe we are all overthinking this" a confident deep voice growled exasperatedly, "we have a fresh deviant of Konoha and a former Anbu captain no less, he ought to know the inner workings of the leaf system", the large blue man grinned as he stared down the sole Uchiha of the group, said Uchiha just stared back blankly not really bothered at being singled out.

"Come on Itachi, don't be shy, we don't bite….much" the large shark skinned man grinned, making a show of his unusually sharp, serrated rows teeth. Now if the Uchiha heir was bothered by this he didn't let it show, his signature poker face held through all the way.

"Tch, so that's how you want to play it huh?" the large fish man asked a little irked at the uchiha's stoicism, and as usual he got no reply from the young Uchiha spawn, "fine then!", the large blue-faced man turned around and made his way towards the clearing away from the bonfire.

The Uchiha deviant didn't bother sparing a look at the retreating form of the Hoshigaki fish-man, "I believe the leaf will send their strongest and smallest assault force after us, while their remaining forces will handle Iwa and protect the civilian settlement" Itachi finished without batting an eyelash.

"Ok then, I shall contact leader-sama and inform him of the recent development, the rest of us will stand our ground here and await orders from leader-sama while Itachi-san and Kisame head to new Konoha to meet up with our spies there and retrieve the yondaime's legacy" the orange haired Yahiko declared as he excused himself from the clearing to contact their leader.

"Oi let's get moving, I'd like to make it there before morning" the large form of Kisame grumbled as he started moving farther away from the clearing.

Itachi wordlessly fell in stride with him while giving a brief nod as he passed by the rest of the group.

"My, my, quite polite isn't he?" the blue haired Konan asked with a playful smirk as she tugged the sleeve of her childhood best friend.

"He's okay I guess, I also heard he's pretty strong too, so I'm hoping to test out my Rinnengan against his Sharingan" Nagato shrugged as he stared at the diamond like stars in the sky that seemed to dot around endlessly.

"Konan?" Nagato called out softly.

"What's on your mind Nagato-kun?" the amber-eyed bluenette asked as she let go of his cloak's sleeve.

Nagato's purple ringed eyes locked onto konan's amber orbs, "do you think this is right?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean Nagato-kun"

"I'm talking about us and all of this" he grabbed at his cloak, "I'm talking about the Akatsuki and its plans"

Konan looked down at her feet and sighed, she herself wasn't sure if the Akatsuki's end game was for the better or worse, she hated how complicated things had gotten, she missed the days when it was just Nagato, Yahiko and herself against the shinobi system, now things were just too complicated to make heads or tails of.

"I'm not sure either Nagato-kun, but we can't turn back now because Yahiko and leader-sama are counting on us." She took his hands in hers, "we will bring down the system together, and that can only be done if we support leader-sama's cause wholeheartedly"

Nagato let a tired sigh escape him, he knew konan's heart was in the right place believing in Yahiko and leader-sama but sometimes she sounded like she didn't have a choice and he didn't like that one bit.

He gave konan a heartwarming smile as he returned to his spot by the campfire no doubt to mule over the future of his friends and the Akatsuki.

 **(Konoha High School: Gym)**

Although school was out for the summer festivities the Konoha-high school gym was buzzing with activity, the sound of squeaking sneakers bounced off the walls like the notes of some pop chorus, the noise of grunting and yelling could also be heard from the poor souls who were undergoing coach Gai's physical session, while the said man could be seen giving a demonstration on how to perform one handed push-ups.

In the southern corner of the gym the cheerleaders could be seen working on their match day routine, acrobatic flips and spins were on full display as they matched each other's steps without error, their cheers harmonized with the pained grunts and chorus of sneakers to give the school gym a busy and semi-intense atmosphere.

"Darn it coach, we haven't even started practicing our gameplay and you're running us ragged" an exhausted Inuzuka Kiba protested from his bent position on the gym floor, sweat dripping down from his malt brown mane.

"I totally agree with Kiba, can we go on a breakfast break now" Choji Akimichi whined as he lay down on the gym floor panting for his lost breath.

"This is most unyouthful! Your flames of youth has been fanned out by the unyouthful gust of the summer breeze!" coach Gai roared, fake tears pouring out of his eyes as he pointed an accusing finger to his players. Now coach gai wasn't your regular run of the mill coach, the man was and still is an Olympic gold medalist who participated in almost every sport known to man and was ridiculously good at it. He's physical form was nothing to sneeze at, he had a muscular yet lithe build, he wasn't ridiculously bulky but he was insanely fit, he rocked a firm chest and a twelve pack while his thighs had more cuts than the hokage monument. The most striking thing about coach guy wasn't his amazing body or career, no it was his unusual bowl-cut hair mixed with his extremely large eyebrows in conjunction with his hideous green spandex covered by an even brighter green track suit, it was safe to say that coach guy could really stand out in a crowd.

"Kiba's right coach, I know it's a drag but the sooner we get to practicing with our playbook the sooner we can leave here" the lazy monotone voice of shikamaru Nara drawled as he stood beside Gai with a clipboard in hand, now unlike the rest of the team shikamaru wasn't decked out in his gym gear, no he had his usual clothes on with a green tracksuit much akin to Gai's on with the words 'assistant' written boldly at the back. Shikamaru nara was not a big fan of physical work no he'd rather lay in the grass and stare at clouds all day but when he was informed by the principal that he'd need to pass gym class to graduate with his peers he worked out a deal with gai to become the team's sole tactician and strategist, so far the combined might of shikamaru and coach gai made all the difference in Konoha high's school team.

"Okay then my youthful subordinates, let us practice the plays from our youthful playbook!" coach guy cheered.

It seemed those were exactly the words the fifteen man team were waiting to hear because no sooner than those words were uttered the whole team got fired up as they got ready to play ball.

"Waiiiiiiiiiitt!" a voice yelled out from the gym's entrance, a male figure dressed in the school gym gear dashed in with a gym bag in hand closely accompanied by a female trailing behind him as they made their way to the center of the gym where the basketball team were practicing.

"You sure took your sweet time getting here Namikaze" kiba smirked at the blonde as he took in the form of the blonde's company, "but I don't blame you man, I can clearly see why"

The blonde just sighed at kiba's lecherous antics, it was just the way the boy was, naruto couldn't really fault him because he was probably dropped as a child or something.

"Sorry I'm late coach, I had to run some last minute errands for my mum" he rubbed his head awkwardly under the scrutinizing gaze of coach gai.

"Its okay naruto, we haven't really started yet, but don't make a habit out of it" he tried to sound commanding and professional.

Naruto stepped away from gai and joined his teammates on the straight line, giving kiba a fist bump, Choji a high-five, shikamaru a nudge in the shoulder and a series of individual greeting to the rest the squad as he took his place as the sixteenth man on the team.

"Uh not to be rude or anything but who's the hot brunette?" Kai the player on naruto's right asked.

The ichiraku spawn took that as her cue to make an introduction since her blonde friend had obviously 'forgotten'

"Hi everyone I'm ichiraku Ayame" she said with an intoxicatingly sweet smile that grabbed the attention of eighty-five percent of the male population in the gym, the remaining fifteen were either gay or indecisive.

"I'm friends with naruto-kun, he convinced me to come so I could watch you all practice" she concluded with yet another smile.

" _Yeah sure… I convinced you"_ the blonde sneered mentally.

"look man I don't mind being ogled by hot chicks when I practice but playoff practice are like super top-secret, but if you still want to watch me that bad you can take my number now and we'll link up after practice" kiba winked as he confidently slicked back his hair, "you know we brunettes have to stick together after all" he smirked as he slung his arm across her shoulders.

Naruto just face palmed in exhaustion, he had seen kiba pull this 'slick' move a thousand times and its success rates were in the negatives, "leave her alone kiba, she's way outta your league and besides she's a cat person" the blonde verbally jabbed as he pried kiba's offending appendage off the ichiraku girl.

"Kiba's right naruto, our practice sessions are private, she really shouldn't be here" shikamaru drawled out as if he had just woken up from a deep slumber, which he probably could've considering the fact that he had perfected the art of sleep-standing.

"Aw c'mon shikamaru look at her she's totally harmless, and besides she's a really huge fan" naruto pointed towards the girl who seemed to have her own field of gravity that pulled in the opposite gender, she was somehow sporting a large Konoha jersey and giving a large victory sign while the other boys stared at her like she was kami's gift to mankind.

"Well I think she's all right shikamaru, you should let her stay" Choji concurred as he devoured a bag of potato chips.

"Yeah man, I think she's cool" Kai added.

"What do you think coach?" shikamaru asked the eccentric man who had been unusually quiet in thought.

Coach gai looked at ayame in skepticism while she and naruto attacked him with the best puppy-dog eye combo ever known to man, gai not wanting his morals or preferences to be questioned gave in with a sigh of defeat, "you groveling is most unyouthful" he sighed pitifully, "but I will allow the youthful maiden stay if she can watch from the bleachers" gai finalized.

"Totally!" ayame cheered, "I can totally do that"

"Then it's decided, she can stay and watch us practice" gai finished with an unnecessary thumbs up.

"But if you breathe a word of what you see here to Iwa-high I'm going to-" shikamaru was interrupted as naruto placed a firm hand on his shoulders, "cool it shikamaru, I told you she's cool" the blonde stared him down.

They both held each other's gazes for a second longer until the dark haired strategist backed down, "alright fine, I trust you and by some long extension her….I guess, so troublesome" shikamaru walked back to coach guys side while muttering something incoherent about troublesome blondes and their strange female companions.

Meanwhile on the cheerleader's side of the gym a certain yamanaka watched the interaction between the unknown brunette, Naruto and the basketball team in sad silence as she realized that she might have blew her chances of getting back with her blonde ex, she wasn't even sure she wanted to get back with him anymore, her thoughts and feelings were a jumbled mess right now.

"I think you should talk to him Ino-san" a serene voice interrupted her sad train of thought.

Ino did a full 360 on her heels to spot the owner of the voice, "Oh Hinata, sorry I didn't see you there" Ino nearly stuttered in surprise.

"Its fine Ino-san, but you really should talk to him" the lavender eyed heiress pressed on.

"I really want to Hinata, I really do but what am I going to tell him?" Ino reduced the pitch of her voice to a ghostly whisper, "that I'm one of the many lethal assassins in the city that works for your father?" Ino questioned the Hyuga heiress.

"well it's hard not to see your point, I mean I was faced with the same decision as you are right now because for as long as I could remember I wanted to be with naruto-kun more than I wanted to be a shinobi, I was willing to even give up that aspect of my life for him and when I told my father about it he nearly had a seizure but he made me understand that at this point in our profession we can't even hope to look back, we've already spilled blood, and if we retire now and are no longer authorized to wield weapons and use ninjutsu how would we defend ourselves and our loved ones if their safety is compromised?" the Hyuga heiress reasoned with Ino.

Ino stared at Hinata in awe, she had no idea the Hyuga had such depth in her, much less this much internal turmoil, "so what did you do Hinata, how did you cope with all of this?"

A red-hot blush spread across her cheeks instantly, "u-umm well I can't really say I coped, because I cried a lot, ate a lot of ice-cream, I-I decided I couldn't leave a double life with Naruto-kun and put him in danger s-so I pulled myself together and poured all my woes and worries into training and getting over my timidity, and even though it almost tore me apart I fell for someone new, and the rest is history, although sometimes I can't help but think about how life would've been if I ended up with naruto-kun or if he was a shinobi" the Hyuga finished with a sad sigh.

Ino nodded in understanding, she sometimes imagined how awesome life would be if naruto was a shinobi alongside them, but alas it was nothing more than wishful thinking that did nothing to salvage the current situation on ground.

"I think you're right Hinata, I'll speak with Naruto-kun immediately after practice today" the yamanaka brightened up a bit.

"Thanks Hinata, I think I know what I need to do now" Ino straightened up as a fire of determination seemed to burn anew in her eyes. "And I'm sorry for the mean things I said to you back at my party I wasn't really myself" she apologized with a sincerity that was rarely seen by others.

"It's okay Ino-san, I forgave you long ago and remember that if you do want to work things out with him you have to make him understand by giving him valid reasons or else he'll just beat himself up about it later okay?" the Hyuga smiled sweetly.

"Thanks Hinata, I should get back to cheer practice but I'll see you later okay?" Ino called as she jogged back to her cheer squad.

A warm smile played on hinata's lips as she watched the cheer-captain return to her squad, she knew Ino would come around eventually, she just needed to make peace with her inner demons and it seems she had already made a start. Hinata did an extremely quick and covert scan of Ino via her byakugan and it showed the foreign chakra signatures had dropped to six from the initial seven and that was progress as far as she was concerned, she just hopped her blonde rival would be able to see it through to the end.

The next two hours was hellishly gruesome for the Konoha high basketball team, shikamaru had discovered exploitable flaws in their previous playbook and completely reconstructed a new one with over 200 plays while the old one bore a measly 92.

Mastering the new play was somewhat difficult for the leafs because the former ones were already committed to muscle memory, and some of their key players were missing, Uchiha Sasuke who had taken two weeks off to see his grandparents, Aburame Shino whom was down with a flu and Hyuga Neji who was studying for his finals wasn't allowed the leisure of sports and recreation, these where some of the missing players coach gai could list of his fingers.

"Well done team! Your flames of youth has allowed us to burn through 40 percent of our new plays, one more and we will be done for the day! Let's take the last play on the fifth section" the boisterous man cheered.

"Yes coach" the team chorused as they got into their starting positions.

"Alright then, naruto we'll need your attacks to be more clinical and precise during this play, no wasted motions or unnecessary dribbling, Sasuke won't be here to pick up the slack with his long-range three pointers so it will be up to you and kiba to punish the opposition" shikamaru pitched in as he marked something of his clipboard.

"You got it shikamaru" the blonde gave a thumbs up in assurance.

"They won't know what hit 'em" kiba smirked with confidence.

The sound of coach Gai's whistle was the signal to begin the final play of practice, Naruto and kiba stared down their opposing teammates as they braced themselves for what was to come. Kiba sprinted down the court towards the opposition's basket with the ball in hand and naruto flanking him on the left, he slowed down his pace as he approached one of his five opponents, kiba's hands began moving in tandem with the ball at impressive speeds as he tried to get past his opponent, a quick crossover to the right and a body feint towards the left had his opponent's stance weakened, he finished with a charge full throttle as he crossed the ball to his right hand through his opponents legs leaving the said opponent with his posterior firmly placed on the gym floors. The whole gym went wild as kiba's marker got intimate with the ground.

Kiba looked through his peripheral vision and noticed naruto was no longer on his left flank and had probably made his way behind enemy lines, kiba crossed the mid line dividing the court in two and made a back pass to the kai who was working his right flank, the opposition wasted no time in surrounding Kai with intentions of getting the ball back and ending the play but shikamaru had other plans, "blonde seven's front and center!" shikamaru called out and that was all kai needed to hear to make a clean pass from between the dual wall the opposition had made in front of him. The ball bounced off the point of impact on the gym's floor and made a beeline straight for the blonde who wasted no time in snagging the ball and heading towards the opposition's three-point arc. One of the last two defenders charged the blonde head on with the intent to end the play by committing an intentional foul but the blonde expected just as much and no less, once his opponent was in reach he crossed the ball behind to his right hand behind his back and shifted to his right, his opponent saw this and recovered quickly, he slowed down and matched the blonde's positioning foot for foot, but the blonde in question had other plans, he faked a 180 turn to his right and his opponent followed, crossed the ball through his back to his left and made a full 360 around the opposition, making a run for his opponents arc, his opponent not wanting to be beaten or outdone gave chase at full speed hoping to catchup to one of the fastest players on their team. Naruto expected this reaction from the defender and intentionally slowed down a little allowing the opposition to hit full speed in hopes of catching up to him, when his opponent was in range and had almost caught up naruto slammed his heels into the ground as a makeshift brake bringing him to an abrupt stop while his opponent dashed past him, the defender in a moment of brilliance and quick thinking also slammed on the brakes bringing him to a screeching stop, but before his legs could come to a complete stop the blonde point-guard dashed past him at full speeds. Not wanting to be outdone the defender tried to pick up the pace and give chase but alas his body had other plans, his ankles couldn't take the change in movement too well and buckled under the insane pace of the blonde causing the large defender to come crashing down headfirst into the ground.

The blonde snickered at his unorthodox ankle breaker, he really should find a name for that move perhaps the 'pace breaker or the pace maker'? They were a little cliché but he could work on that later. He made his way into his opponents arc and stared down his final opponent,

"Give it up naruto, your solo run ends here, I haven't been passed since middle school and you know it" the large form of Choji loomed over the blonde.

"ahh Choji my good man you forget, there's a first time for everything" the blonde feigned elegance as he kept the ball in motion with his left hand, he charged the large boy at top speed hoping to catch him off guard but Choji's experience proved to be a match for the point-guard's speed, naruto performed series of complicated and fancy crossovers with mind twisting hand movements but Choji proved equal to the task as he matched the blonde's footwork toe for toe.

Choji deciding to take matters into his own hands stepped closer to the blonde who in return pivoted and backed the large Akimichi, Choji's forearms where placed on naruto's back as he tried to subtly nudge him off balance, naruto on the other hand who now had is back turned could now see that the rest of his teammates were closely marked and properly covered leaving out the option of making a pass. Naruto forced two steps back towards the opposition's basket and although it was extremely difficult the blonde pulled it off. Choji and the rest of the spectators where in awe, it shouldn't have been possible for someone of naruto's stature to move someone of Choji's mass, but it was happening right before their very eyes.

Choji snapped himself out of his trance and started to push back, he wouldn't let the Namikaze's unusual strength deter him, with Choji's head now in the game it became a struggle of will and fitness which the Akimichi heir had in spades.

Naruto could feel Choji pushing back with all of his might which was exactly what the blonde wanted, he needed Choji to lean in excessively for the next phase of his plan to work, as though reading the blonde's mind the Akimichi heir took a sumo-like stance on his toes and doubled his force allowing him to move the blonde back inch by inch.

Naruto let a foxy grin play on his face, the Akimichi had played right into his hands like a rat to the pied piper, faster than Choji could react naruto pulled back from the challenge, causing the Akimichi to dip in forward towards the ground face first, the blonde launched off the gym floors with enough power to carry him all the way to the face of the basket but before he could reach the peak of his jump the large hands of the Akimichi spawn blocked his way before he could make the dunk. A true testament to the Akimichi's skill as a basketballer but mere child's play to the likes of the Namikaze point-guard, as naruto approached the peak of his jump he rotated a full 360 in mid-air to dunk the ball through the unguarded side of the Akimichi scoring a basket and ending the play.

The entire Konoha high gym erupted in wild cheers as one of their five key players broke through the impenetrable Choji single handedly and made a basket to boot, no section of the gym cheered as loud as the basketball team's aisle as the players once again had hopes for winning the upcoming playoffs without the aid of two of their best, Naruto and Kiba could spear-head them through and they knew it!

Ayame on the other hand was speechless, while she had heard of Konoha high's sporting prowess it was a different thing all together to witness It first-hand, the way each player moved with individuality and confidence was something she thought only professionals had but apparently she was wrong, she stared across the court to where naruto was standing, he just stood there seemingly frozen in time, basking in the afterglow of the Thor's hammer he just pulled off?

Naruto stood underneath the rim he had just abused, images and memories long forgotten flashing through his mind,

 _ **(Flashback: Ten years ago)**_

 _A ten year old Ayame could be seen wandering through a mild forest, she had her brown hair tied into twin pigtails, her amber eyes glistened with mirth as she approached a large oak tree with a face splitting grin. "Naruto-kun, Naruto-kun! Come out come out where ever you are!" she called out in a sing-song tone, "you can run but you can't hide!"_

 _Unknown to the brunette, high up in the oak tree a red haired, blued eyed boy clung to one of the branches high up in the trees, his forest green t-shirt blended perfectly with the oak leaves camouflaging him from the unsuspecting eye. "A little bit closer aya-chan" the red-head whispered to himself._

 _As soon as little Ayame stood directly underneath the red-head's tree branch, he let go of the supporting branch, freefalling to the ground behind her, "BOO!" he yelled as he touched down._

 _Now ayame was a big girl and didn't frighten easily at least that's what she liked to think, but the alarming sound of a body free falling from such a height and the yell that accompanied it proved too much for the ten year old to handle, so she did what any girl her age would; "Eeeeeekkkkk!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, falling down to her knees as her young adolescent legs failed her._

" _Hahaha! Aya-chan you should see the look on your face" the red-haired child laughed uncontrollably as he gently helped his female companion up._

" _That's not very nice Naruto-kun" the brunette sobbed silently as she stood shakily on her legs._

 _Naruto's feeling of victory and accomplishment died the second he heard his friend sob softly, he didn't want to hurt her in any way, he just wanted to play a harmless prank on her and by the looks of it things went out of hand a little bit._

 _He closed the gap between them a little bit as he stepped forward to check on her, "Aya-chan! Are you all right? I didn't mean to hurt you I just wanted to scare you a bit" the red head frantically sputtered._

 _Ayame just gave a coy smirk as the blonde came within her range of reach, "aya-chan are you all right? Can you hear me?" he stretched his hands to grab hold of her shoulders, she decked him in the gut hard enough to almost be lifted off his feet, "oof!" the wind was knocked out of him as he sprawled out on the grass in a rag-dolled fashion._

" _You should see the look on your face now" she grinned over the form of the unconscious red-head._

 _ **(Flashback end)**_

Naruto's left hand unconsciously traveled to his gut, "Aya-chan" he whispered as he spotted her on the bleachers she was cheering and waving loudly and in that moment the image of a six year old ayame overlapped the sixteen year old he was seeing.

He could remember now, he remembered Teuchi-jiji, Asami-obachan and aya-chan, he remembered his trip to somewhere she called the old country where he met them all for the first time and his first bowl of ramen, how could he forget? This where one of the major highlights of his childhood.

The blonde began making his way to the bleachers when he was grabbed by Choji and the rest of the basketball team, he was hoisted up into the air, caught and then hoisted up again.

"Way to go Naruto! Iwa won't know what hit them with you leading the charge!" Choji roared as he continued hoisting his teammate up and down.

"Way to bring down the hammer" a player cheered out.

"Konoha high will always come out on top as long as we have our fox!" Kai joined the cheering.

"Yeaah Namikaze all the way!" Jin roared.

"Sweet Thor hammer bro I see myself doing pretty much the same thing against Iwa" kiba smirked confidently as he went to get himself cleaned up.

At the side of the court coach gai and shikamaru evaluated the plays made by their players, "what do you think coach? Are we good enough to take Iwa?" shikamaru questioned the boisterous man.

"if we play just as we well as we did today I have no doubt that our flames of youth will burn brighter than Iwa's, even with key players like the Uchiha and the Hyuga missing we'll pull through" Gai grinned at his assistant as he gave a thumbs up to nobody in particular.

"I feel the same way about the match but I don't think naruto will be able to make it through the four quarters with fancy play and excessive movements like that, the blonde is too troublesome" shikamaru sighed

"Relax my youthful assistant, naruto's flames of youth stems from his infamous Uzumaki stamina, his Namikaze genes has not hampered that one bit." Gai gave a boisterous laugh while shikamaru sighed in defeat.

 **(Meanwhile On The Outskirt Of New Konoha City)**

A bright green flash of light enveloped the streets of the outer sector of Konoha signifying the arrival of the Konoha shinobi corps, three individuals emerged from the bright hue all sporting skintight black bodysuits that seemed to suck in the surrounding light, their faces were fully covered by balaclava like masks which were still the in the same shade of their body suits which had bronze fore-head protectors with leaf insignias on it. Their hands were covered by the same black, light sucking fabric with metal greaves running down the length of the arms all the way down to their fingers, the chest and torso where also lightly armored by the metal like material which didn't hamper movement or prevent instantaneous and complex maneuvers, they wore utility packs on their hips and small weapon holsters on their thighs, their kneecaps and shins also adorned the same metal material for protection. In conclusion the shinobi corps looked pretty badass.

"Menma, Sakura look alive were on the clock here, this is our first official mission without sensei and we can't mess it up" the team leader Sasuke ordered as he double checked his equipment.

"Sasuke is right, what we need to do is locate the fourth's son and dispose of Gatou's goons" the blonde haired Namikaze concurred as he too made sure he was ready to go.

Sakura gave a tight nod as she readied herself for departure, the looks in both her teammates eyes established how much the mission meant to them. For Sasuke it was a chance to prove himself as a capable shinobi and step out of his brother's shadow while for Menma it was a chance to prove to the shinobi corps that being the hokage's nephew didn't warrant him special treatment, and for her, she just wanted to prove she could become an outstanding kunoichi with coming from a major clan.

"according to the intel provided by the hokage says naruto should be at the gym right now, so we have to move quickly so we can make contact before he departs" Sasuke instructed in a business like tone that left no room for questions.

"Our ETA should be around thirty minutes, so get ready for a long run" Menma added his bit as the personnel in charge of the team's logistics.

Konoha high was on the other side of the city and traveling by vehicle could not guarantee you arriving there in thirty minutes, but shinobi were used to the unconventional means of transportation such as the roof, the railway and even the sewers so they were not hampered by nuisances like traffic and all of that, but the thing with missions like these during the day meant they had to stick explicitly to the shadows and avoid their civilian persona because the city was crawling with Gatou's goons and they might have to swing into action anytime so taking the bus was totally out of the question.

The members of team seven were about heading out towards the Konoha high school district when an explosion tore through the southern districts of the city, before they could gather their wits another one went off place, then another and another with one more at the heart of the city.

Team seven stared with wide eyes as the city they all swore to serve and protect went up in flames and smoke all around them, large smoke mushrooms filled the air all round them as people started racing out of buildings, screaming and panicking with no plan of action in mind.

"Menma, radio the hokage tower, tell them the attack has begun, sakura find and help out as many civilians as you can, menma back her up when you're done I'm off to find Naruto" the Uchiha ordered with a frown as he turned around and began to sprint towards the Konoha high school.

Now that the city was in a frenzy and everyone was panicked Sasuke didn't need stealth anymore he could charge through the mayhem, find his best friend and protect him from Gatou's goons.

 **(Konoha High school gym)**

The series of explosions that tore around the city caused tremors around the gym, the inhabitants all raced towards the nearest exits as they tried to achieve a 'sense' of safety, "Exit the gym in an orderly fashion, head for the nearest fire escapes and try not trample on each other" coach gai ordered loudly at the stampeding students.

He gave a quick nod to the 'students' who remained unfazed by the tremors rocking the gym, "do what you have to, I'll contact hokage-sama" he ordered losing his boisterous persona in a heartbeat.

Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, kiba, Hinata and four others nodded as they headed off to isolated locations to **Henge** into their shinobi corps uniform.

"Hinata you and Kiba should do a perimeter sweep and make sure we don't have any opposition on our hands, do not engage just report back here so we can come up with a plan of action" 'shikamaru ordered as he made the ram hand-seal that henged him into his shinobi corps uniform.

"Choji you and Ino are on me, let's help out where we can, team thirteen you guys help out with the evacuation, let's all meet back here in thirty minutes" the ponytailed shadow caster took off with a **shushin** that left swirling leaves in its wake.

The remaining corps members all took off in different directions to complete the task given to them by the Nara heir, whoever had the nuts to launch a large scale attack on New Konoha city had the shinobi corps to answer to and had whole lot of hell to pay.

( **Mean while at the school exit)**

The streets near the school district where in total chaos, people ran for safety in different directions, screaming, yelling and tripping over each other as they hoped to get away from whatever caused those tremors. The calmer of the fleeing civilians weren't all that calm after they saw the state their city was in, large columns of smoke rose into the sky from different directions, buildings and streets were set ablaze with some unlucky souls caught in the inferno of flames.

Naruto was agitated and downright frightened, how did the day transit from a bright sunny day with basketball practice to a full blown terrorist attack and why on God's green earth couldn't he spot a familiar face? What about Aya? Where was Aya-chan? Why wasn't she anywhere around? He swiveled to his right through the flood of people hoping he could catch wind of the brunette, "Aya-chan!" He called out desperately in search of his friend.

The fear and panic level in the area dialed up for the worse as a wave of thick white mist started to blanket the area around the school, the now visionless citizens screamed way louder as they now ran into and over each other in a bid to get away from the eerie mist.

"Naruto-kun! Is that you!?" the panicked voice of ayame called out through the mist, the blonde couldn't tell where her voice was coming from it was like her voice was being thrown around in the mist.

"Aya-chan I'm here! I can't tell where you are so let's try and head back into the school!" he called back.

"Alright naruto-kun be careful" the sounds of her rapid footsteps indicated her hurried departure back to the school ground.

The blonde Namikaze did a three-sixty and dashed back towards the school grounds in hopes of meeting up with ayame " _I hope the others got away from here already cus this mist gives me the creeps"_ the blonde thought as he sprinted to safety.

The blonde's mad dash was halted as he ran face first into a large metallic object that obviously wasn't there before, "gaaah! What the hell?" the blonde cursed as he rubbed his bruising fore-head, "the hell did I run into?"

" **Water style: water prison!"** a deep gruff voice called out from nowhere in particular.

"Who said tha-" the blonde was cut short as he was suddenly surrounded by a large mass of water that covered him completely from head to toe.

"Target Acquired" the gruff voice whispered to no one in particular.

Naruto was in an urgent state of panic, he flailed around fruitlessly trying to escape the watery sphere that came out of nowhere, he had no idea how long he could keep this up, _"what in kami's name is this!"_

 **Author's note: there you go people! Another chapter done and dusted! And it's 10k+ words this time! Hope you enjoy it, anyways lemme know what you think about the story so far alright?**

 **-zeetrex22**


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